PALM-SUNDAY, the name given to the Sunday immediately preceding Easter, from the boughs of palm trees which used to be carried to the church on that day by the worshippers, in imitation of those which were strewn in the way of Christ when he went up to Jerusalem. (Fuller's Church History, p. 222.) The author of the Festival, as quoted by Brand (Popular Antiquities), says,—"It is called Palme Sondaye for bycause the palme betokeneth vctory, wherefore all Crysten people sholde here palme in procesyon in tokennynge that he hath foughten with the fende our enemye, and hath the vctory of hym." Branches of willow, box, and yew being more accessible than palm, are generally employed in Roman Catholic countries, and go by the general term of palms. The palm branches, on being borne to the church, are thrown together in a heap, and after being duly blessed by the priest, the worshippers carry portions of them away again, in the belief that they thus afford a sure protection against "winter storms and thunders." (See Barnaby Googe's translation of Naogeorgus in his Popish Kingdom, 1570.) A wooden ass, surmounted by a rider of the same material, seems also occasionally to have formed a part of the procession on Palm Sunday. The author of the Pilgrimage of pure Devotion, 1551, gives a satirical glance at this practice in his preface when he says,—"Upon Palme Sondaye they play the foles sadly, drawynge after them an asse in a rope, when they be not moche distante from the wooden asse that they drawe." As appears from authorities quoted by Brand, it was customary also to deck private dwellings and churches with the branches of the palm at this interesting season. (Vol. i., p. 120, Bohn's edition.) The ceremonies of Palm Sunday were retained in England for a considerable time after other practices peculiar to the Church of Rome had been abandoned. This ceremony was to be retained by
an express declaration of Henry VIII. in 1536; but in the reign of Edward VI. it seems to have ceased. It is still customary with boys, however, in some parts of England to "go a palming," and gather slips of willow, flowers, or buds at this season. In Russia, the Greek Church seems to hold a very solemn procession on Palm Sunday.