On Sunday, Christians around the world will celebrate Palm Sunday, signifying Jesus' triumphant entrance into the holy city of Jerusalem five days before he was crucified.
|
|
In this region where the census tells us that 65 percent of the population are members of a Christian church and all but 8 percent of them are Catholic, where do the area's churches get these all-important tree leaves?
"People think that this stuff comes from the sky," mused Karen McCauley, manager of Watra Church Goods, the Chicago-based largest religious goods store in the nation.
As the Gospels reveal, Jesus, riding on a donkey, was greeted by crowds who "took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him." In modern times, Christian churches have used the Sunday before Easter to commemorate the arrival, passing out palm leaves to congregants and blessing the leaves.
The leaves that parishioners use on Palm Sunday don't even come from the stereotypical palm trees lining the streets of Beverly Hills, McCauley said. Generally, the leaves used are from a relative, the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), which are native to the Jerusalem area.
Another reason, more practical, is that while date palms can grow to be almost 100 feet tall, most are low-growing, which makes the coarse leaves easy to cut off for harvesters.
Most Catholic churches in the area get their leaves from the Guild, the Scranton Diocese supplier, said Trish Morrow, general manager of the nonprofit store.
"This is our busiest season," said Morrow, who has her staff request bundles of palm leaves from her suppliers, which are primarily in Florida, Texas, and Mexico. "We do it more for the service than for profit."
Despite the hurricanes that deluged Florida last fall, this year's date palm crop was healthy, she said. The Guild orders several different types of palm leaves: some large leaves shaped like fans (typically used for altar decoration), but primarily thin strands that come in bundles of 100.
Some strands are ordered to be as short as 18 inches long, Morrow said, but most churches order leaves three feet long.
Other local suppliers, like Eddie's Nursery and Florist on Business Route 6 in Dickson City, get their leaves from the South. The nursery, which gets their leaves from a wholesaler in Florida, supplies the leaves to the Dickson City Assembly of God and several other churches, said co-owner Eddie Gliniecki.
However, not all Christian churches use palms on Sunday.
In the Byzantine Catholic Church, Palm Sunday is also called "Flowery Sunday," said the Rev. Frank Twardzik of St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church in Scranton. Because pussy willows were more available in the areas where Byzantine or Ukrainian churches existed - mainly Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe, those flowers were used in place of palm leaves and, by tradition, are still used, he said.
Many adults, especially older generations, bring the blessed palm leaves back to their houses and arrange them in the form of a cross to decorate their walls for the entire year, said the Rev. Barbara Snyder of the First United Methodist Church of Carbondale.
Some churches add their own unique spin to the service.
Pastor Kristian Bjornspad said in years past, Jenny the Donkey led his congregants in a procession in the Plot section of Scranton that mimics the procession of Jesus. At St. Mark's Church in Moscow, the Rev. Earl Trygar usually assembles his Episcopalian congregants outside so they can process into the church waving their leaves and shouting Hosannas.
When pastors daub ashes to congregants' foreheads on Ash Wednesday, said Monsignor Anthony Morra of Dunmore's St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, the ashes are the burned remnants of leftover palms from the previous year.
