Croatia enters Holy Week with deep devotion

13 April marked the beginning of Holy Week – Palm Sunday, also known as the Sunday of the Passion of the Lord – which is celebrated in the Catholic Church in remembrance of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, when the people welcomed him with palm and olive branches.

At Masses in churches across Croatia, passages from the Gospels recounting Christ's passion and death are read or sung, and worshippers bring olive and palm branches to be blessed, CE Report quotes HINA.

Palm Sunday Mass includes two special rites – the first is a procession with the blessed branches, commemorating Jesus' glorious entry into Jerusalem, and the second is the full reading of the Passion of the Lord.

These rites reflect the central elements of the Paschal mystery: Christ's painful death and his victory through resurrection. Palm Sunday marks the start of the final days of preparation for Easter, the most important Christian feast.

The tradition of processions with palm branches began in Jerusalem in the fourth century, and by the ninth century was being observed in Rome, from where it spread throughout the Church.

As the custom spread across Europe, believers in Mediterranean regions used green branches of palm and olive, while those in inland areas used fir branches or any decorative shrub they had at hand. After the service, they would take the branches home as a blessing, placing them in their homes or fields to protect against storms or other misfortunes. If a storm was approaching, they would burn the blessed branches and pray for God to spare their crops from hail or bad weather.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, a commemoration of the final days of Jesus' life, his passion and death. Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil are especially observed.

Holy Week concludes with Easter. In Christianity, the Resurrection of Jesus is a core article of faith: that God the Father raised his Son, Jesus Christ, from the dead on the third day – that is, that Jesus died and rose again.

Christians believe in the resurrection of the dead, a belief grounded in Jesus' resurrection.