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Friday, March 22, 2013

Does Palm Sunday have something to do with hands?

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, on which Christians commemorate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, with the crowds lining his way with palm branches, which in the ancient world were given to winners of great victories. Are palm trees and the palm of the hand related? 

Surprisingly, yes. The Romans presumably saw a similarity between the leaves of the tree and a hand with outstretched fingers, and thus named the one after the other (no word, though, on whether the Romans had more fingers on their hands than we do!).



Photo by Nika Akin on Unsplash



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