Palmsonntagsbräuche

Palm Sunday Customs are practised on the Sunday before Easter Sunday, celebrating Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Church ceremonies include the blessing of palm branches and a procession. Branches of willow catkin, box tree, juniper, holly, ivy, etc. are decorated with apples, oranges, ribbons, pretzels and many other things (these decorations are called Palmbuschen, Palmlatten, Palmbäume or Palmbesen). They are fixed on sticks between 0.5 and 10 m long. In cities the palms usually consist of very simple arrangements of willow catkins and box leaves, or just one single willow branch or olive branch. According to popular belief they serve as protection against misfortune.

During the Middle Ages and the Baroque period a representation of Christ, e.g. a carved figure seated on an ass (later the animals were replaced by wooden ones) was frequently carried in the procession. During the Enlightenment this custom was forbidden, but it survived in some regions, for example in Puch bei Hallein (Province of Salzburg) and in Thaur (Tyrol), it was reintroduced in Hall (Tyrol) in 1968 and in Altenmarkt in Ysper Valley (Lower Austria) in 1991 where it had been practiced from 1965 to 1979.

Literature: J. A. Adelmann, Christus auf dem Palmesel, in: Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 63, 1967; H. Fielhauer, Palmesel und Erntekrone, in: Festschrift für R. Wolfram, 1982; M. Habersohn, Formen des Palmbuschens, in: Österreichischer Volkskundeatlas, 6^th  instalment, 2^nd  part, 1979.