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PRODUCTS
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Palm Sunday:
Palm Sunday is a moveable feast in the church calendar observed by Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians. It is the Sunday before Easter. In the Western church it must always fall on one of the 35 dates between March 15 and April 18.
Symbolism
The feast commemorates the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before his execution. Many Christians and Messianic Jews regard this event as the terminus of the first 69 weeks of Daniel's Prophecy of Seventy Weeks, and thereby a very holy day. Even setting this aside, the nature of the entry and its circumstances are usually deemed enough to warrant a special feast.
It was also a common custom in many lands in the ancient Near East to cover, in some way, the path of someone thought worthy of the highest honour. All of the Gospels report that people gave Jesus this honor. In the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke they are reported as laying their garments and cut rushes on the street. John is the only Gospel to specifically mention palm branches. The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory (Leviticus 23:40 - Feast of Tabernacles, and Revelation 7:9). Because of this the detail of the palm branches and the scene of the crowd greeting Jesus as he entered Jerusalem by waving palm fronds, and carpeting his path with them, has given the day its name.
Day of Week
On the tenth of Nisan, according to the Mosaic Law, the lambs to be slaughtered at Passover were chosen. Because of the link of this to the Triumphal Entry, some new interpretations report that the event was not even on Sunday, because Nisan 10 would not be a Sunday if the Crucifixion occurred on Friday the fourteenth. This day in the year of the Passion saw Messiah presented as the sacrificial Lamb. It heralded His impending role as the Suffering Servant of Israel
Tradition
It is customary in many churches for the patrons to receive palm leaves on Palm Sunday. This tradition originated in around 800 A.D., during a period of corruption in the church. A well-known palm tree farmer was good friends with the Pope and had fallen upon hard times. The Pope agreed to purchase a number of trees and distribute the leaves amongst his followers and thus the tradition began.
Bibliography Notes: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Online, 19 April 2006. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_sunday
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