Much like our modern day practice of waving flags or banners at festivals, parades, and sporting events, it was a Jewish custom to hold and wave palm fronds at various religious feasts and joyful celebrations. The Early Church continued with this ancient practice by blessing and distributing palm fronds (branches) to the faithful on the Sunday before Pascha in remembrance of those who likewise took up branches during Christ’s Triumphal Entry into the holy city of Jerusalem. 

As the Church began to spread further away from the Holy Land and outward towards Europe, not all regions had the luxury of palm trees. In places where cold weather prevented tropical trees from thriving, branches of indigenous trees and bushes were blessed and held by the people. 

Because the founders of this parish predominately came to this country from many parts of Eastern Europe (Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine, etc.), they obviously had no palm trees either. Therefore, in order to mirror this long-standing tradition, they simply utilized one of the first plants to blossom in that region during the spring season: Pussy Willows!