For Christians, Palm Sunday is a day to celebrate, but the days following Palm Sunday are sad because we know that our King will soon be killed (JTA, Young Ezekiel, 124).
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Palm Sunday is one of the most beautiful and moving days in the year for Christians. It commemorates Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem trumpeting his arrival as our King, Savior and God. He enters the city sitting on a donkey announcing that he is the king that Jerusalem had been waiting for… The crowd that greeted Jesus glorified him shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11.9b). They spread palm tree branches on the ground and hailed him as their king (JTA, Young Ezekiel, 123).
When I was young and attended church with my aunt, we would make palm leaf crosses the day before Palm Sunday. That was Saturday of Lazarus. After church services and a light brunch in the recreation hall, our church community would gather to split palm leaves into strips - thin enough so we could fold them into crosses. I only did this once a year - every Saturday of Lazarus - and the first few took a little time to shape. I had to refresh my memory and once it came back to me, I would make dozens of palm leaf crosses, which would be handed to the church parishioners the next day on Palm Sunday. I would keep the cross I received all year - sometimes, more than a year - because I felt its holy power would bless me (JTA, Young Ezekiel, 123).
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