By: Carol Morgan
Growing up I was always confused on the actual name of this Sunday, as it was sometimes referred to as Passion Sunday as well as Palm Sunday. Each year my mother would take out our Easter outfits from the prior season for us because that is what you wore on Palm Sunday. As we would enter St. Christopher Church we would take our palm and my mother would give stern instructions to me, my brother and sister, not to wiggle or speak loudly during the Readings. I remember being restless as we listened to the Passion Gospel. So, to keep our minds occupied, my Mother taught us how to make crosses out of our palms. We would make them for ourselves and those around us seated in the pews. Our crosses would find their way on to our dresser tops replacing the ones from last year. Then there was the dilemma of what to do with last year’s dried palms. As a family we had the unique tradition of placing last year’s palm under our mattresses. My Mother said it helped usto dream of the angels. Of course I embraced the tradition of cross making on Palm Sunday and taught my daughters the process. That tradition also included the transferring of the palms to their mattress final resting place. At night if my girls had bad dreams, I reminded them of the blessing they had just under them to keep them safe as they slept. This process of placing our palms under the mattress worked well until we were preparing our home for a move. The moving men picked up my mattress and the breeze gave flight to the palm crosses, and they spewed everywhere. The young men looked at me and commented that this was a new experience for them. In fact, they had no familiarity with the wonder of Palm Sunday. So, my moving day turned into a bible study mini session. It is truly a miracle how we can share our faith with those around us even in the most unexpected times. No matter how you celebrate Palm Sunday in your family and how you store the palm branches you take home, we should remember these blessed palms are the symbol of our faith victory just like the Lombardy Trophy, the Stanly Cup, or the Commissioner’s Trophy. Jesus Christ conquered death and saved us. So maybe we should display our palms with the same panache as we would other
symbols of victory.
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