Sunday, March 29, 2026

Holy Week Begins With Palm Sunday

Local churches mark the beginning of Holy Week on Sunday with the observance of Palm Sunday

Local churches mark the beginning of Holy Week on Sunday with the observance of Palm Sunday. For Christians, the week preceding Easter Sunday is full of significant events. Easter 2026 will be observed on Sunday, April 5. Known as Holy Week, the week begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Holy Saturday, the day before Easter.

Holy Week commemorates different key events that unfolded over the final days of Jesus Christ’s life on earth.

Many Eastern Orthodox churches follow the Julian rather than Gregorian calendar and will observe Palm Sunday on April 5 and Orthodox Easter on April 12.

“This is a moment for us to really reflect on the mystery of our redemption — the mystery of God’s love for us,” said Archbishop José H. Gomez, who will celebrate the 10 a.m. English-language Palm Sunday Mass at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. “Jesus carried his cross for us and he died for us. To set us free to live a new life — to live for God and for the love of our neighbors and families.”

For many Christians, the most important days this week are Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Palm Sunday celebrates the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. On the day of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, residents laid palms before him, which is why palms are distributed to the Christian faithful each year during Palm Sunday Mass. Palms are blessed at Mass, and many Christians turn their palms into crosses upon arriving home. The palms are eventually returned to the church, where they are burned, and the ashes of the palms are then used during the following year’s Ash Wednesday services.

Palms remain a meaningful symbol for Christians. Christians are given palms at some local churches on Palm Sunday before proceeding to their seats. These palms are blessed at the beginning of Palm Sunday Mass, and many churchgoers ultimately fashion their palms into small crosses.

Palms can be kept in a home for the year, though Christians who cannot do that can return them to their church. That’s important to note that because the palms are blessed, they cannot simply be discarded as trash. In fact, palms are sometimes collected by churches and incinerated. The resulting ashes are then used to create the ashes that will be used on Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. If returning palms to church is not feasible, CatholicCulture.org notes that it is acceptable to bury the palms.

Holy Thursday, also known as Maundy Thursday: Holy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, when Jesus celebrated the Passover feast with his disciples. In the story of Jesus Christ, the night of the Last Supper was the same night that Jesus was betrayed by his disciple, Judas.

Good Friday commemorates the trial, punishment and crucifixion of Christ. Though the official presiding over the trial of Jesus, Pontius Pilate, found no evidence of Jesus’s guilt in relation to the charges filed against him, he ultimately agreed to Christ’s crucifixion anyway in an effort to appease the crowd and avoid a riot. As a result, Christ was stripped, flogged and crowned with thorns before being made to carry his cross through the streets to the place where he was ultimately crucified. On Good Friday, the tabernacle inside Catholic churches is left empty to symbolize that Christ is departed.

Holy Saturday: The final day of Holy Week, Holy Saturday is a day to remember that Christ descended into hell, where he preached the gospel and opened the way to heaven for all those who were worthy.

Holy Week is immediately followed by Easter Sunday which marks the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which Christians believe occurred within days of his crucifixion and burial.