| Where: | Countrywide |
| When: | The Sunday before Easter |
| Time: | All day |
Palm Sunday is the last Sunday before Easter and the final Sunday in Lent ; because it is linked with Easter it can vary in date and always falls between 15th March and 18th April. It commemorates the entry of Jesus on the donkey into Jersusalem when the crowd welcomed Him waving Palm Crosses. In church services today, Palm Crosses are often given to the congregation to remember the occasion. In parishes blessed with the presence of a compliant beast (not universally common!), there may be processions to church with palms and donkey as at Corbridge, Northumberland (pictured). This happens at many of the larger parish churches and cathedrals, the vast majority of which have a special service on Palm Sunday.
Helpful Hints
In 2025 Palm Sunday is on 13th April.
To find your nearest Church of England place of worship click here: https://www.achurchnearyou.com
Photo by Fred Dawson (of Crosses).
They were handing out the crosses in church this morning. Our local place, St. Lawrence in Chobham, had a short procession lead by a donkey from the car park to the church door.
I was told that the palm crosses were kept until the following year, when they were burnt to provide the ashes used in the Ash Wednesday services.
Yes this is true in our Catholic Church in Ely. One year, on Shrove Tuesday, the deacon came round to my house and asked me to burn the palms left over from the previous year as he hadn’t time and they were needed the next morning. No problem I thought. Well it was, they were damp and wouldn’t burn in a metal tray in the fire grate. I heated them up in the oven. To no avail! After several hours I finally got them to a burnable substance and finished up ‘ccoking’ them on the bar-be-que outside on our deck around midnight. These were collected about 8 the next morning ready for the 9.30 Mass.