Greece and Orthodox World Mark Palm Sunday as Holy Week Begins

Orthodox Christians people Palm Sunday successful Greece and abroad, gathering successful churches and communities arsenic Holy Week begins. Credit: Mpougiotis Evangelos / AMNA

April 5 marked Palm Sunday connected the Orthodox Christian calendar, drafting worshippers crossed Greece to churches for immoderate of the astir moving and visually striking services of the year.

From tiny chapels successful distant villages to large cathedrals successful ample cities, and from the mainland to the islands, thousands of faithful gathered to commemorate the triumphal introduction of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem.

Worshippers be the Divine Liturgy connected Palm Sunday astatine the Holy Trinity parish religion successful Nafplio, Greece, connected Sunday, April 5, 2026. Credit: Mpougiotis Evangelos / AMNA

Palm Sunday remains 1 of the astir joyful feasts successful the Orthodox Christian tradition. At the aforesaid time, it marks the opening of Holy Week, the astir solemn and spiritually important play successful the Church calendar, culminating successful Easter Sunday 1 week later.

Across Greece, galore worshippers attended services holding crosses woven from thenar fronds, a defining awesome of the day. One of the cardinal moments successful each Palm Sunday liturgy is the Blessing and Distribution of the Palms, accompanied by a peculiar supplication recited implicit baskets of thenar crosses placed earlier the icon of Christ.

Romanian Orthodox priests carrying thenar branches, crosses and icons get astatine the Patriarchal Cathedral successful downtown Bucharest, Romania. Credit: Robert Ghement / EPA via AMNA

How Orthodox Palm Sunday is marked successful Greece

Palm Sunday successful Greece is not lone a large spiritual observance but besides a time shaped by longstanding section customs. Different regions sphere their ain traditions, adding chiseled layers to the solemnisation portion remaining anchored successful the aforesaid Orthodox liturgical framework.

Although the feast falls during Lent, the Greek Orthodox Church allows the faithful to devour fish, oil, and vino connected Palm Sunday. Even so, the fasting subject continues successful different respects, arsenic worshippers inactive abstain from dairy products, eggs, chicken, and reddish meat.

Romanian Orthodox priests transportation thenar branches, crosses and icons, followed by believers, during a Palm Sunday pilgrimage procession that started successful beforehand of the National Cathedral successful downtown Bucharest, Romania. Credit: Robert Ghement / EPA via AMNA

That objection has fixed emergence to 1 of the day’s astir acquainted household meals. Many households stitchery astir seafood dishes, astir notably fried cod served with ail mash, wide known successful Greece arsenic “bakaliaros skordalia”.

In immoderate areas, radical spot the blessed thenar crosses they person successful religion successful their homes, connected boats, and adjacent adjacent animals and pets arsenic a motion of blessing and protection. In definite communities, children besides weave palms into antithetic shapes, including crosses, fish, and wreaths, depending connected section custom.

Russian Orthodox believers be a Palm Sunday work astatine Isaac’s Cathedral successful St. Petersburg, Russia. Credit: Anatoly Maltsev / EPA via AMNA

Orthodox Palm Sunday traditions successful Romania and Russia

In different Orthodox countries, Palm Sunday was besides marked by longstanding section traditions. In Romania, the Romanian Patriarchate and the Archdiocese of Bucharest held the accepted Palm Sunday procession bringing unneurotic hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and laic faithful successful the capital.

The procession followed a way from the National Cathedral to the Patriarchal Cathedral, wherever Patriarch Daniel was acceptable to person the pilgrims. In Russia, meanwhile, the feast is wide known arsenic Willow Sunday.

Worshippers traditionally be the Divine Liturgy and bring willow branches for blessing alternatively of thenar fronds, reflecting the section customized of utilizing autochthonal branches successful colder climates wherever palms are not readily available.

Orthodox Greece marks Palm Sunday with contented and Biblical symbolism

Palm Sunday commemorates the introduction of Jesus into Jerusalem conscionable days earlier the Last Supper and the opening of the Passion, the series of events that led to his suffering and crucifixion.

Although the four Gospels disagree successful immoderate details, each picture Christ’s accomplishment successful Jerusalem arsenic a infinitesimal of nationalist joy. Crowds gathered astir him, welcoming him arsenic the long-awaited Messiah and hailing him arsenic the 1 coming successful the sanction of the Lord, making the lawsuit 1 of the astir symbolically affluent moments successful the Christian story.

This year, that opposition was particularly striking. In Jerusalem, the metropolis astatine the bosom of the Gospel account, the time unfolded nether the strain of conflict, with supplication replacing 1 of Christianity’s best-known processions. However, successful Greece, Palm Sunday brought afloat churches, thenar blessings, and enduring customs.