Sunday, 5 April 2015, the Orthodox Church will be on the Palm Sunday.
Palm Sunday is the day when we celebrate the entrance of Jesus Christ, our Lord, into Jerusalem, as victorious emperor, but with modest image, riding a colt, a fulfilment of a prophecy done 400 years before Messiah came. The chants of this time urge us not only to spiritual light, but also to victory and joy: ”As You tied hell and killed death and resurrected the world, the children with the palms of victory praised You, Christ, and we cry to You, O Vanquisher of death; Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is He that comes to call Adam…!”
The Christian significance of the willow branches
Following the devotion of the crowd of the city of Jerusalem who met Christ, our Lord, palm leaves in their hands, the Orthodox Church scheduled, after the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, to bless the willow branches brought by faithful, with prayers and sparkling with holy water. The rite of blessing consists in blessing prayers said by the church servants, willow branches and burning candles in their hands, as symbols of the victory of life over death.
Palm Sunday Pilgrimage in Bucharest
This year too, the traditional pilgrimage on the Palm Sunday day will be organised on the eve of the Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem, Saturday, 4 April 2015, 14.30 hours.
All the clergy of Bucharest and of Ilfov county, as well as the priests of charity (from hospitals and social centres, cemeteries, military units, prisons, etc.), about 800 clergy, will participate. All the faithful willing to publicly confess their faith in the Resurrection of Christ will join them.
The pilgrimage will culminate with the blessing service of the big icon of the feast of the Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem celebrated on the Joy Hill (Patriarchate Hill) and with the sermon delivered by His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
The Archdiocese of Bucharest organises similar processions of the clergy and faithful in the cities of Prahova county: Ploiesti, Campina, Valenii de Munte, Urlati and Mizil.
The origin of the Palm Sunday pilgrimage
The origin of the Palm Sunday pilgrimage dates ever since the 4th century, when the Christian celebrated the Palm Sunday in quite a special way. Some of the references bequeathed concern the way of celebrating the Entrance of the Saviour in Jerusalem. The Western pilgrim Egeria (alias Silvia or Etheria) speaks, in her travel notes to the Holy Places, about the procession organised on this day after the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. All the Christians gathered at 13.00 hours and went together with the servant priests and the bishop of the city to the Olive Mountain, till the place where the Lord ascended to the sky. Hence, at 17.00 hours, they came down to the Holy City, all Christians of all ages and children too, going in front of the bishop, fig and olive branches in their hands, and shouting: ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord’. When they reached the city they went to the church of the Holy Resurrection where they celebrated the Vesper service. This beautiful tradition was conveyed to our people, till today.
In Bucharest, the Palm Sunday pilgrimage was forbidden by the communist regime in 1948, and resumed in 2008, with the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel. These pilgrimages are public confessions, through prayers and religious chants, of the faith in the Sacrifice and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Saviour.
