April is the month of Easter celebrations—This period, like every religious holiday in the Polish ceremonial calendar, is a special kind of time. We behave differently then than we do every day, eat special dishes and use symbols emphasizing how this period differs from everyday life. We enter the Easter period through the threshold of Lent, Palm Sunday and Holy Week.
An important moment is Flower or Palm Sunday. On this day, a service commemorating Christ’s entry into Jerusalem is held. Palms are blessed during Mass. In earlier times, a palm was generally a willow branch, more or less ornately decorated with ribbons and flowers. This depended on the owner’s wealth. In Poland, centers of genuine palm-making artistry were known.
In Kurpie, Podlasie, and eastern and southern Poland, palms several, and sometimes more than a dozen, meters high were made. This tradition has survived there to this day. Besides being an object used in church liturgy, the palm also found application in superstitious practices. This happened because of the palm’s basic element—the willow. In folk beliefs, the flowering willow had long been understood as a symbol of life reborn in spring. In addition, branches blessed during the Sunday service acquired special power. Therefore, after leaving the church, people often struck one another with palms to pass on the vitality of the green branch. They said: “The palm strikes, not I. In six nights—it will be Easter.” After returning home, they broke off the “little balls” (also called catkins) from the willow branch and swallowed them. They believed that these would protect them from sore throats and all kinds of spells. The whole palm was usually kept behind a holy picture so that it would protect the home from storms. Today, the magical significance of the palm has been almost forgotten. The willow, as a magical plant, has also lost its power and is merely a traditional element of the palm. The residents of Bolesławiec generally buy palms at “CEPELIA” or at the marketplace. They treat the palm as a decorative element symbolizing the festive period.
Only here and there, in villages, including the area around Bolesławiec, do older people still make palms themselves. They are decorated differently and stand out from those commonly bought.
The art of making palms is not difficult, so perhaps it is worth returning to this tradition, especially since the weather is getting warmer and a trip to gather willow branches could be a pleasant spring walk.