Cultural events are listed here with basic background details. For specific events, dates, and times, please see the Featured Events on the Cultural Calendar main page.

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday, falls on the Sunday before Easter and is the first day of Holy Week, the final week of Lent. It is a movable feast which commemorates Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 

In the churches of most mainstream Christian denominations, palm branches were traditionally blessed and distributed on Palm Sunday, representing the palm branches laid in front of Jesus Christ by the crowd as he rode into the city.  

In many places where the climate makes procuring palm difficult the branches of native trees are substituted, and the use of olive branches is common in some Eastern Orthodox churches.  

In some churches, including the Roman Catholic church, the blessed palm leaves are kept and burned the next year to provide the ashes for the observance of Ash Wednesday. 

LIKELY DATES

Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter. Easter is a movable feast; the date being determined by the lunar cycle. It is observed on the first Sunday after the paschal full moon, being the first full moon to fall on or after the 21st of March. As such, Palm Sunday falls on a different date every year, but is always in late March or early April.