Yesterday was Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday (niedziela palmowa) is called also The Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (niedziela męki Pańskiej), Willow Sunday (niedziela wierzbowa), Branch Sunday (niedziela różdżkowa) or April Sunday (niedziela kwietna) since it takes place usually in April.

There was a custom to bring to a church a figure of Jesus Christ riding on a donkey while the spectators were throwing flowers and willow branches (called bazie). Traditionally, entering the city on a donkey symbolizes arrival in peace, rather than as a war waging king arriving on a horse.

Carrying the figure of Jesus was a honorary function – In Kraków, the town councilors were doing this. This was usually accompanied by a procession from one church to another or from outside of the church inside symbolizing the ceremony of Jesus entering Jerusalem. The Church banned this habit at the end of the XVIII century because it was becoming too theatrical and full of pranks and it was accompanied by not very religious songs.

Since in Poland the spring does not start usually until the late April, Poland is also lacking the palms indigenous, so Poles developed their own tradition of making the Easter palms. The most popular palms that people usually carry to the church are made of blooming willows branches called bazie or kotki decorated with branches of birch, raspberry, currant and also some boxwood bukszpan, dry flowers and grass, ribbons and other decorations. In the Catholic Church the willow (wierzba) symbolizes the resurrection and the immortality of the soul (zmartwychwstanie i nieśmiertelność duszy)

If the Palm Sunday occurs early in late March or early April people cut the branches of willows and branches of fruit traditionally on Ash Wednesday. Then the branches are placed in vases with water to grow inside the warm room until they start budding green.

Different regions had their own type of palms, the palms in Vilnius region (now Lithuania) did not contain bazie at all but they were carefully constructed from dry flowers (usually straw flowers called in Polish nieśmiertelnik which means “immortal”) and painted into vivid colors; now these types of palm can be seen all over Poland. In some regions palms were up to four meters tall, for instance in the region of Nowy Sącz (South of Kraków) or Kurpie region (Northeast Poland).

Many Polish towns and villages (the best known are Lipnica Murowana in Małopolska and Łyse in Podlasie) organize artificial palm competitions. The biggest of those reach above 30 meters in length; for example, the highest palm in 2008 had 33.39 meters.

In the past there was a habit that people “beat” each other with the palms on the way home after the mass. This was not for punishment but rather for good wishes. They exclamed:

Ja nie bije, palma bije… (I am not beating, the palm is beating…)

Since the palms are blessed in the church they are stored with a great care at homes, usually near the holy pictures to protect from any misfortunes people and animals. They are also kept near the windows during the thunderstorms or hails or tucked into beehives so that the bees will produce good honey. In the past bazie were swallowed by members of family to protect from the throat diseases or headached. Powdered bazie were used as a medicine.

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)