Our Easter-Russia's "Willow Sunday"

Palm Sunday, which commemorates Jesus' return to Jerusalem one week before his crucifixion, is known as Willow Sunday in the Russian Orthodox Church. At Willow Sunday services, congregants carry small bundles of pussy willow branches and burning candles.

At every metro station, on every marketplace one can see Russian “babushki” – the older women selling little bouquets of pussy-willow, often tied with ribbons. They are intended to represent “leafy branches” which the people of Jerusalem had cut from the fields, spreading them on the road to welcome Jesus (Mk 11:7).

By giving each other Easter eggs, Christians profess the faith in the Resurrection.