Christians in Nigeria today join the rest of the world in marking Palm Sunday, signalling the beginning of the Holy Week.
The day symbolises the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem where he triumphantly rode on a donkey a week before his resurrection.
The event is recounted in each of the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Christians made small crosses from palms to celebrate the day and some churches also held processions, reenacting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem.
The palm branches, for most Christians, signify goodness and victory.
Palm Sunday is the last week of the Lent season that precedes Easter.
In several churches in the country, messages were centred on the lessons from the event. Encyclopedia Britannica
Palm Sunday, also called Passion Sunday, in the Christian tradition, the first day of Holy Week and the Sunday before Easter, commemorating Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
It is associated in many churches with the blessing and procession of palms (leaves of the date palm or twigs from locally available trees). Palm Sunday is celebrated on Sunday, April 10, 2022.
The day is now called officially Passion Sunday. The liturgy begins with a blessing and procession of palms, but prime attention is given to a lengthy reading of the Passion, with parts taken by the priest, lectors, and congregation. The palms are often taken home by the members of the congregation to serve as sacramentals (sacred signs of the sacraments), and some of them are burned the following year to serve as the ashes for Ash Wednesday.
Holy Week, in the Christian church, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, observed with special solemnity as a time of devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ. In the Greek and Roman liturgical books, it is called the Great Week because great deeds were done by God during this week. The name Holy Week was used in the 4th century by St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, and St. Epiphanius of Constantia. Originally, only Good Friday and Holy Saturday were observed as holy days. Later, Wednesday was added as the day on which Judas plotted to betray Jesus, and by the beginning of the 3rd century the other days of the week had been added. The pre-Nicene church concentrated its attention on the celebration of one great feast, the Christian Passover, on the night between Saturday and Easter Sunday morning. By the later 4th century the practice had begun of separating the various events and commemorating them on the days of the week on which they occurred: Judas’s betrayal and the institution of the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday; the Passion and death of Christ on Good Friday; his burial on Saturday; and his Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Holy Week is celebrated from Sunday, April 10 to Sunday, April 17 in 2022.
In his message, Pope Francis called for an Easter truce in Ukraine to pave the way for peace through real negotiations.
“May an Easter ceasefire begin but not to reload arms and resume combat. No. A ceasefire to arrive at peace through real negotiations,” he told a public mass at Saint Peter’s Square.
“Let the Easter truce begin. But not to provide more weapons and pick up the combat again no! a truce that will lead to peace, through real negotiation.”
The pontiff denounced a war where “defenceless civilians” suffered “heinous massacres and atrocious cruelty”.
“What victory is there in planting a flag on a pile of rubble?” he asked.