Passion or Palm Sunday remembers Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Decorating one's house with palm branches (which can be sox and willow branches, and sometimes yew) can be a family or group project.
Actual palm, of course, was not used. Box and willow branches, and sometimes yew, were all called palm. On this day, parties of boys or girls used to go out collecting willow. Everyone decorated their houses with it on Palm Sunday, while the church too was adorned. Generally the countryside is beautiful now, and nothing there is lovelier than the willow tree. This day could see family or school or club expeditions into the spring countryside to find willow branches both for their homes and for their parish church. Just before beginning the decorating of the house all could say this prayer, adapted from the ceremony of the blessing of the palms:
O God who didst bless the people who carried branches to meet Jesus; bless also these branches which we have gathered and with which we mean to honor thy name, so that wherever they are placed people may obtain thy blessing and may be protected from all adversity by thy right hand. Through Christ our Lord.
Activity Source: Candle is Lighted, A by P. Stewart Craig, The Grail, Field End House, Eastcote, Middlesex, 1945
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic Discussion Ping List.
Here's wishing all FReepers reading this thread, a blessed Holy Week.