Palm Sunday 2028: Date, History & Significance

The congregation gathers with palm branches (in India often coconut or areca fronds, or dried palm woven into crosses); these are blessed, a procession re-enacts the entry, and the Passion according to that year's Gospel is read in parts. The blessed palms are kept through the year and burned to make the ashes for the next Ash Wednesday.

Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey — a sign of a king who comes in peace, not on a war-horse — as pilgrims filled the city for Passover. The crowd hailed him as the Son of David; within the week the same city would call for his death. The Church reads the entry and the Passion together on this day to hold the whole arc in view.

Source: The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles; the liturgical calendar of the Church

The palm procession is attested in Jerusalem by the fourth century and spread through the Church; in India the blessed palm woven into small crosses is a common keepsake. It is not a public holiday.

• Indian Christian community practice (Latin, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, CSI, CNI, Orthodox)
• The Roman Missal / liturgical calendars

1. Services begin with the blessing of palm branches (or coconut fronds in Kerala and Goa) and a procession recalling Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.
2. The long Passion narrative is read at Mass, opening Holy Week.
3. The blessed palms are taken home and kept until the next year, when they are burnt for Ash Wednesday.

• India-wide Christian communities. Blessed fronds and woven-palm crosses, the entry procession, and the reading of the Passion; the start of Holy Week.

• Lenten fare — Meals stay simple, as Lent continues through Holy Week.

Palm Sunday falls on Sunday, 9 April 2028. Christ's entry into Jerusalem; start of Holy Week.

at sunrise

Palm Sunday is dated by The Sunday before Easter — the start of Holy Week (movable). The movable feasts of the Christian year (Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost) are all reckoned from Easter, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox; the fixed feasts (Christmas, Epiphany, the Annunciation, All Saints and All Souls) keep the same civil date each year.

The date is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar and shifts against the Gregorian year.