PALM SUNDAY (Lat. Dominica Palmarumn, or Doom. in Palmis), the last Sunday of Lent, is so called from the custom of blessing branches of the palm tree, or of other trees substituted in those countries in which palm cannot he procured, and of carrying the blessed branches in procession, in commemoration of the triumphal entry of our Lord into Jerusalem (john xii.). The date of the origin of this custom is uncertain. The first writer in the west who expressly refers to it is Venerable Bede. The usage certainly existed in the 7th century. A special service is fokind in the Roman missal, and also in the Greek enchologies, for the blessing of " branches of palms and olives;" but in many countries, other trees, as in'England, the yew or the willow, and in Brittany, the box. are blessed instead. A procession is formed, the members of which issue front the church carrying branches in their hands, and singing a hymn suited to the occasion, of very ancient origin. In the Greek church, the book of the gospels is borne in front. In some of the Catholic countries of the west, a priest, or, occasionally a lay figure, was led at the head, mounted upon an ass, in commemoration of our Lord's entry into the city—a usage which still exists in Spain and in Spanish America. Before timely return
to the church, the doors have been closed, and certain strophes of the hymn arc sung alternately by a choir within the church, and by the procession without, when, on the sub-deacon's knocking at the door, it is again thrown open. and the procession re-enters. During the singing of the passion in the solemn mass which ensues, the congregation hold the palm brauch in their hands, and at the conclusion of the service it is carried home to their respective houses, where it it preserved during time year. At Rome, the !procession of the palms, in which the pope is carried, is among the most striking of the picturesque ceremonies of the holy week. In England, Palm Sunday anciently was cel ebrated with much ceremonial; but the blessing and procession of the palms was dis continued in the Church of England, together with the other ceremonies abolished in the reign of Edward VI.