Palm Sunday or Domingo de Ramos is the beginning of Holy Week. This Sunday reflects on the triumphant entry of Jesus to Jerusalem. Holy Week is a week-long reflection of the trials and eventually death that our Savior Jesus Christ went through. During this day, people wave palm leaves to symbolize their joy at seeing Jesus. In modern times, people go to church to have these palm leaves blessed by the priest officiating the mass. But there are times when they push and shove each other just to get near the priest bearing the holy water in order the bless the leaves. Sad, really.
Oh, how I remember when I was still a young girl when Holy Week comes. From my father’s side Catholic family, they prep up two big statues of St. Peter (San Pedro) and Ste. Salome (Salome) for the Wednesday and Friday afternoon processions which starts from the RC church and goes around the town. San Pedro is the first saint in the procession because he holds the key to Heaven. Salome, is another story. It was she who asked for the head of John the Baptist, which was given to her on a platter.
On my Mother’s side Protestant family, we celebrate differently. We do not have have processions nor Pabasa, a lyrical narration of the Passion of Christ, but we do go to church to reflect on Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. One of my favorite hymns is Fairest Lord Jesus.
During this Holy Week, let us reflect not only about how we are living our lives but how we are living our lives according to God’s will.
This entry was posted on Sunday, April 1st, 2007 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Bits and Pieces, Lessons in Life, My Family, My Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.