--- title: Palm Sunday: Here's What Christians Are Celebrating description: It's the day Jesus entered Jerusalem before the Crucifixion canonical: https://time.com/3761695/palm-sunday-christian-church-easter/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-27T22:52:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:05.864Z og:title: Palm Sunday: Here's What Christians Are Celebrating og:description: It's the day Jesus entered Jerusalem before the Crucifixion og:url: https://time.com/3761695/palm-sunday-christian-church-easter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef66971038223920/698785a2428a9e5510cc7da1/palm-sunday.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Palm Sunday in a catholic chapel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Palm Sunday: Here's What Christians Are Celebrating twitter:description: It's the day Jesus entered Jerusalem before the Crucifixion twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef66971038223920/698785a2428a9e5510cc7da1/palm-sunday.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Why Christians Celebrate Palm Sunday ## Video: Pope Francis Eats Lunch With Gay, Transgender Inmates [Watch (HLS stream): Pope Francis Eats Lunch With Gay, Transgender Inmates](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5uzP8omU.m3u8) (1:08)  _Published 2015-03-21. In keeping with his record of outreach to the marginalized, Pope Francis dined with 90 inmates while visiting Naples, Italy._  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Mar 27, 2015 10:52 PM UTC  Palm Sunday in a catholic chapel Palm Sunday in a catholic chapelGetty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Mar 27, 2015 10:52 PM UTC On Sunday, Christians all over the world will be carrying palms and other branches. That’s because it’s Palm Sunday, a celebration of the day Jesus entered Jerusalem before he was crucified and then resurrected, according to the Christian faith. Christians carry palms on Palm Sunday because according to the Gospels, Jesus’ followers covered his path in palm fronds on the day he entered Jerusalem, after the custom of placing palms in the path of a high-ranking person. The palm branch also [signified victory ](http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/palmsunday.php)in Greco-Roman times, so the waving palms would have resembled a triumphal procession. In many churches, congregants twist palms into the shape of a cross to commemorate the day, or use other branches if palms are not easily accessible– in some parts of [Europe,](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11432b.htm) churchyards are strewn with branches and flowers. The holiday is often celebrated with a procession. Jesus also arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey, which was considered[ highly symbolic](http://www.sharefaith.com/guide/Christian-Holidays/what-is-palm-sunday.html). At the time, a king riding a donkey symbolized peace, while a king on a horse symbolized war — while Jesus was not technically a king, his followers considered him to be King of Israel. Palm Sunday is depicted in all four Gospels, which isn’t true of all stories about Jesus. In some congregations, the palms are burned at the end of Palm Sunday and the ashes are saved to use on [Ash Wednesday ](http://www.sharefaith.com/guide/Christian-Holidays/what-is-palm-sunday.html)of the following year. But most of all, Palm Sunday signifies the beginning of the last week of Lent — and the beginning of Holy Week. _Read next:_ [_Pope Francis Takes Selfies With Crowd After Palm Sunday Homily_](http://time.com/60699/pope-francis-palm-sunday-selfie/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) Palm Sunday: Here's What Christians Are Celebrating ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3761695/palm-sunday-christian-church-easter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3761695/palm-sunday-christian-church-easter/"},"headline":"Here's Why Christians Celebrate Palm Sunday","datePublished":"2015-03-27T22:52:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:05.864Z","description":"It's the day Jesus entered Jerusalem before the Crucifixion","url":"https://time.com/3761695/palm-sunday-christian-church-easter/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Religion","Lent","Jesus","Christians","faith","Easter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef66971038223920/698785a2428a9e5510cc7da1/palm-sunday.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef66971038223920/698785a2428a9e5510cc7da1/palm-sunday.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Palm Sunday in a catholic chapel","caption":"Palm Sunday in a catholic chapel","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3761695/palm-sunday-christian-church-easter/","name":"Here's Why Christians Celebrate Palm Sunday"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Pope Francis Eats Lunch With Gay, Transgender Inmates","description":"In keeping with his record of outreach to the marginalized, Pope Francis dined with 90 inmates while visiting Naples, Italy.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5uzP8omU/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-03-21T15:51:37.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5uzP8omU.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3761695/palm-sunday-christian-church-easter/","duration":"PT1M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3761695/palm-sunday-christian-church-easter/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```