Palm Sunday

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christ's entry into Jerusalem , icon

The Palm Sunday ( Latin Dominica in Palmis de passione Domini for the Roman Catholic Church ; Palmarum for the Protestant church ) is the sixth and last Sunday of Lent and the Sunday before Easter . Holy Week , which the Evangelical Lutheran Church also calls Silent Week, begins on Palm Sunday . The Great Week or Holy Week of the Catholic and Orthodox tradition also includes Easter.

Church tradition

Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem . Fresco in the parish church of Zirl , Tyrol, Austria
WG Schwarz: Palm Sunday in Moscow at the time of Tsar Alexej Michajlowitsch (1865)
Communion children at the palm procession in Bingen , 1932
Lecture cross on Palm Sunday in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse

The entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem is commemorated on Palm Sunday . As a sign of his kingship, the people cheered him and sprinkled palm branches on the coming to Jerusalem ( Jn 12.13–15  EU , Mt 21.1–11  EU , Lk 19.28–40  EU ). Palms were venerated as sacred trees in many places, for example in Delos they were sacred to Apollo . In the Mediterranean region they have always been a symbol of life and victory, in Israel they are especially the symbol of independence and the victorious king ( 1 Makk 13.51  EU ; 2 Makk 14.4  EU ). Therefore, the entry into Jerusalem , designed in this way, represented a special provocation for the Romans as well . According to Sach 9.9  EU, the donkey in turn was a symbol of the non-violent king of peace and modesty.

The origin of the Christian Palm Sunday celebration goes back to the liturgy of Jerusalem , where the individual events of Jesus' ordeal were reproduced in their own celebrations and rites . In the Latin Church , the liturgical celebration of palm consecration and palm procession on Palm Sunday was common practice from the second half of the 9th century.

The palm consecration used to be part of the pagan Easter customs before it was moved to Palm Sunday in many areas. The consecrated branches were not only intended to protect the house from lightning and fire until the next renovation, but they were also tucked or buried in the corners of the fields with the shells of the Easter eggs and the coals of the Easter fires in order to make them fertile.

Roman Catholic Church

This Sunday will be the liturgy on the first day of Holy Week

  1. Palm consecration and -prozession the memory of the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem celebrated as Christ on a donkey entered Jerusalem and him with palm fronds and shouting " Hosanna as the Son of David!" Messiah was worshiped;
  2. read the Gospel of the Passion of Christ according to the reading order from one of the Synoptic Gospels .

The current liturgical name Dominica in palmis de Passione Domini , translated as "Palm and Passion Sunday", goes back to the sacramentary of Pope Gelasius I ( Gelasianum vetus ) and has been in this version since 2002. The reading of the Passion corresponds to the ancient Roman liturgical tradition, the Procession is taken from Old Gaulish and Eastern Church customs.

The liturgical color of Palm Sunday in the Roman rite is red in the ordinary form. In the extraordinary form of the Roman rite , the liturgical color of the palm procession is red until after the daily prayer; the priest changes his robes to read the Passion and wears purple. The service begins with the palm consecration, which usually takes place in a location outside the church. The celebrant blesses the palm bundles with consecration prayer and sprinkling with holy water . The liturgy provides for the handing over of the blessed palm branches to the faithful, who receive them kneeling and with a kiss. After the recitation of the gospel and the homily , everyone goes to the church with palm branches in their hands. In many places it is customary to decorate the processional cross at the top of the palm procession with palm branches or a red stole .

During the procession, the ancient processional hymn Gloria, laus et honor is sung as alternate chants. The congregation answers the stanzas of the cantor with the antiphon:

“Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit, Rex Christe, Redemptor,
cui puerile decus prompsit Hosanna pium.”
“Fame and praise and honor be you, Savior and King.
The people once shouted their hosanna to you with jubilation. "

When reading the Passion, neither incense nor candlesticks are used. The Passion is recited by several people, one of whom speaks the words of Jesus, one that of the Evangelist and the third the words of everyone else. While the traditional words of Jesus are traditionally recited by a deacon or priest, the words of the evangelist and other persons can also be recited by a lay person . At the point of the reading, which tells of the moment of death, all kneel down and remain silent and prayer for a while.

Well-known Palm Sunday songs are Singt dem König Freudenpsalmen ( God's praise no. 280) and the hymn The king's flag floats up ( Vexilla regis , GL 299). The daughter Zion, now better known as the Advent song , rejoice (God's praise no. 228) was first published in 1826 as a song “on Palm Sunday”.

Protestant churches

The evangelical pericope order provides the story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem ( John 12,12-19  LUT ) as the gospel , while the story of the passion is only assigned to Good Friday . The humiliation of Jesus for the people is discussed in the Sunday epistle Phil 2.5–11  LUT .

The liturgical color of the Sunday palmarum is purple. In the liturgy on this Sunday, Gloria Patri , Gloria and Hallelujah are omitted .

More communities

In the New Apostolic Church , confirmation traditionally took place on Palm Sunday until 2011 . From 2012, confirmations will take place in the New Apostolic Church on a Sunday between Easter and Pentecost. This regulation was made in order to upgrade Palm Sunday in the church year.

art

The depiction of the entry into Jerusalem already has an early Christian tradition. The entry into Jerusalem is modeled on the entry ( Adventus ) of a victorious Roman emperor, often at the same time as an entry into the heavenly Jerusalem, as a triumphal procession over sin and death - for example on the sarcophagus of the city ​​prefect Junius Bassus (359, Rome, grottos from St. Peter).

In Byzantine representations, Jesus rides - in accordance with the oriental custom - sitting on the side of the donkey. Jesus rides, accompanied by the disciples who are walking, towards the city gate of Jerusalem. In contrast, in Western representations, Jesus sits astride. Sometimes the donkey is followed by the filling . A large crowd is represented in medieval depictions, and the palm fronds are replaced by twigs made of pussy willow , which is why they are also known as catkins. The earliest surviving sculptures carved from wood were made around 1300, most of them date from the 15th century. As a rule, they show Christ riding on the donkey, his right hand raised as a blessing - for example in the case of Master Bertram (late 14th century).

regional customs

"Palm donkey", end of 17th century (Museum am Kornhaus, Bad Waldsee )

Palm procession

The custom of the Palm Sunday procession has been known since the 4th, 6th and 8th centuries. On Palm Sunday, palm bushes , palm sticks, also real palm fronds , olive branches , catkins or tufts of box trees , previously blessed with holy water , are carried in the church procession as a "sign of life and victory" and then placed behind the crucifix in the apartments . In northern Germany, the children bring blessed palm sticks to their godparents and grandparents. In return, they are usually given a little something or something sweet.

In the Middle Ages - the earliest mentioning dates back to the 10th century - and especially in the Baroque period, a donkey (later made of wood) with a figure of Christ, a so-called " palm donkey", was often carried along with palm processions . This custom is now practiced again in some parishes, for example in Middle Franconia ( Hilpoltstein , Jahrsdorf) and Upper Bavaria (Munich-Bogenhausen and Kolbermoor , parish of the Second Coming of Christ). In Thomatal in Lungau, the pastor Valentin Pfeifenberger led the palm procession every year while riding a donkey. In Tyrol, Thaur is the only municipality in Tyrol that still has a palm procession in which a figure of Christ is dragged through the village on a wooden donkey. The Calw Palm Ride takes place annually in Möttlingen near Calw, an equestrian procession led by donkeys, which ends with an outdoor Protestant church service. A solemn procession to the cathedral takes place on Palm Sunday in Fritzlar in northern Hesse. A high mass is then celebrated there with the Canons of the Premonstratensians . The Heiligenstadt Palm Sunday procession has been a custom since the 16th century, in which life-size Passion figures are carried through the old town. The story of Jesus' passion is shown in six pictures. In 1734 it was brought forward from Good Friday to Palm Sunday.

A special procession takes place in Jerusalem . Thousands join the Franciscans with palms and instruments and make a pilgrimage from the Mount of Olives through the Lion Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem. The blessing is then traditionally donated in St. Anne's Church .

Palm bushes, palm brooms, palm stick, palm stick

Palm Sunday in East Timor

A palm is a bundle of (traditionally) seven natural materials:

The bushes are tied together with sal willow (Feber crops) and placed on long hazelnut branches or poles (up to 10 m in length). Often the palm bushes are decorated with apples, oranges, ribbons, planes, pretzels , blown and colored eggs and more.

The palm stick is a carved and ornate willow stick that children bring to their godfather on Palm Sunday after it has been blessed in church.

The execution of the palm stick is very different from region to region. It can consist of a small cross that is braided with willow shavings and with small tufts of boxwood on the three upper ends . But it can also be a 50-60 cm long stick with one or more crumbs. Krüsel are small tufts of carved shavings that twist up in a spiral using a special carving technique. They are carved on a stick, so not cut off. A few apples or oranges are tied to the stick with colorful bows, and the top is of course adorned with the consecrated boxwood. Sometimes a palm bird is stuck between the palm branches, a piece of white bread shaped like a bird. Children who bring a palm stick usually get a gift from their godparent, mostly consisting of sweets and a little money. A particularly large and colorful variant of this tradition are the Easter palms , which are particularly widespread in Poland and southern Germany today .

In Bolzano and other cities in South Tyrol , olive branches are also used, which are widespread in large parts of Italy and the Mediterranean region (sometimes next to each other or replaced by laurel branches ).

Cross jewelry

On Palm Sunday the lecture cross is decorated with green and flowering branches, and in the liturgy with a red stole . At home, the branches blessed at the palm consecration are put behind the wall crosses as an Easter symbol.

Palm donkey and palm hare

The family member who is the last to get up in the morning on Palm Sunday is known in many areas as the “palm donkey”.

In the Hessian Ried , in Rheinhessen and in the Odenwald , it is customary for the so-called Palm Hare to come on Palm Sunday. He usually brings one or two boiled brown eggs and a little snack, and more and more small gifts of money. It's a little taste of the Easter Bunny.

See also

literature

  • Hermann Graf: Palm consecration and palm procession in the Latin liturgy (= publications of the mission seminary St. Augustin, 5). Steyler-Verlag, Kaldenkirchen / Rhineland 1959, DNB 451633822 .
  • Gaga Shurgaïa: La struttura della Liturgia delle Ore del Mattino della Domenica delle Palme nella Tradizione di Gerusalemme . In: Studi sull'Oriente Cristiano 1 (1997), pp. 79-107.
  • Mark M. Morozowich: A Palm Sunday Procession in the Byzantine Tradition? A Study of the Hagiopolite and Constantinopolitan Evidence . In: Orientalia Christiana Periodica 75 (2009), pp. 359-383.

Web links

Commons : Palm Sunday  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Palm Sunday  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fr. Daniel Feuling OSB: Introduction to the liturgy of Holy Week. Augsburg / Stuttgart 1921, p. 19.
  2. Easter customs. In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Vol. 15; Leipzig, 1908, p. 171.
  3. Martin Klöckener: Holy Week I.3 . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 5 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1996, Sp. 1277 . Missale Romanum ex decreto Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II instauratum auctoritate Pauli PP. VI promulgatum. Editio typica tertia (Ioannis Pauli PP. II cura recognitum) 2002, Normae universales de anno liturgico et de calendario , no. 30.
  4. ^ Ulrich Parent, Joachim Stalmann: 13 - Daughter of Zion . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 5 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-50326-1 , pp. 17–21 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. Official announcements: Confirmation date newly regulated. New Apostolic Church International, April 19, 2011.
  6. Entry into Jerusalem. In: Lexicon of Christian Art , Freiburg 1980, p. 94.
  7. Eduard Urech: Palm. In: Lexicon of Christian Symbols , Konstanz 1985 5 ; P. 187.
  8. ^ The Palm Sunday procession in Heiligenstadt . Website of the Catholic Propsteipfarramt St. Marien in Heiligenstadt, accessed on March 31, 2017.