Palm Sunday for the Orthodox world

Palm Sunday for Orthodox believers around the world is observed on Sunday, April 21, with various local traditions and rites, one dating centuries, revived around Greece.

On the Ionian island of Corfu, musicians of the island’s venerable philharmonic again paraded through the UNESCO-protected old town quarter of the isle capital. A video of the parade is posted today on the Orthodoxia news agency.

The Palm Sunday Divine Liturgy and communion was officiated at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral by Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos II, and co-officiated by the Archbishopric’s First Secretary, Bishop of Thespies, His Grace Symeon. The sermon was given Archimandrite Chrysostomos Koulouriotis, who noted:

“God’s Son majestically entered the Holy City. The incarnate Lord and Savior, Righteous and Redeeming, enters the city, the Sacred, to reign, through His Resurrection, beyond death for eternity.”

In Evros prefecture, in extreme northeast Greece on the border with Bulgaria and Turkey, locally celebrated Easter traditions are observed by the descendants of Greek Orthodox refugees from eastern Thrace and Asia Minor.

On Lazarus Saturday for the Orthodox faithful, which this year fell on April 20, 2019, young girls in traditional garb hold baskets decorated with flowers, going from house to house and singing carols dedicated to Lazarus and to the coming message of the Lord’s Resurrection.

The next day, on Palm Sunday, priests toss palms into the air inside the churches, with parishioners vying to catch the branches before they touch the floor.

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