Hi view05,
Thank you for your question.
http://www.easyfunschool.com/article2101.html
"An Arabic tradition is to hold candles decorated with flowers for
Palm Sunday along with palm branches. Greeks hold crosses woven from
either palm branches or bay leaves on Palm Sunday. Slavic peoples
receive pussy willow branches on Palm Sunday. These are adaptations
due to climate in the country of origin of these people."
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http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=105
"In most countries of Europe real palms are unobtainable, so in their
place people use many other plants: olive branches (in Italy), box,
yew, spruce, willows, and pussy willows. In fact, some plants have
come to be called palms because of this usage, as the yew in Ireland,
the willow in England (palm-willow) and in Germany (Palmkatzchen).
From the use of willow branches Palm Sunday was called Willow Sunday
in parts of England and Poland, and in Lithuania Verbu Sekmadienis
(Willow-twig Sunday). The Greek Church uses the names Sunday of the
Palm-carrying and Hosanna Sunday."
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http://www.revjm.com/palmsdaffodils.htm
"I was delighted to find the significance of the palm branches in the
story where Jesus goes to Jerusalem. Palm Trees were a prominent
symbol of fertility and hospitality in the ancient Middle East. In a
part of the world where water was and is scarce and the environment
harsh, palm trees flourish, providing food, shelter, and meaning.
The Palm in ancient times was an important source of nutrition. Dates
were food for rich and for poor, food that travelled well in the
desert, the dates were used to make wine, and the seeds were used to
feed animals. And the rest of a palm tree provided oil from the
seeds, construction material from the trunk, and the branches could be
woven into ropes and household goods.[ii]
The palm tree played such a central role in the life of ancient Middle
East people that the ancient pagan people considered the palm tree to
be the tree of life. The Canaanite ancestors of the Jews worshipped
statues of a palm tree that was called ?Baal-Tamar? which meant ?God
of the Palm,? and the Phoenician goddess of love and fertility,
Ashtoreth, was worshipped in the shape of a Palm. Archeologists find
images of palm trees in the ancient ruins of palaces, temples, city
gates, and crowns of kings.
Though Palms were not like gods to the ancient Jews, the ancient Jews
continued to use palms leaves in worship, and later, for Muslims, palm
trees were still viewed in the Koran as an especially holy tree ? when
Jesus is born in the Koran, Mary gives birth under a palm tree.
In the various Christian sources, it?s only in the story as told by
John that Palm branches were used. The other writers tell only of
branches, and so when Christian people in other lands began to
celebrate the Sunday before Easter, many had never seen or heard of a
palm tree, so they used branches from trees they already knew of. As
a result, this Sunday has had various names besides Palm Sunday,
including ?Olive Sunday,? ?Willow Sunday,? ?Blossom Sunday,? and even
just ?Branch Sunday.?"
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Best regards,
tlspiegel |
