Palaspas

Palm Sunday (Linggo ng Palaspas or Domingo de Ramos) marks the beginning of Holy Week (Mahal na Araw or Semana Santa), which narrates Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem. On this day, devotees bring plain or ornate palm fronds (locally referred to as palaspas, palapa, langkay, lukay, or ramos) to church to re-enact the arrival of Jesus in Gethsemane where people welcomed Him while waving palm leaves. 

Palms are blessed during the Mass and brought home to be placed on home altars, doors and windows with the belief that these ward off evil spirits. According to Mr. Elmer Nocheseda, author of “Palaspas: An Appreciation of Palm Leaf Art in the Philippines” published in 2009, early Christians considered the palm as a symbol of victory of the faithful over the enemies of the soul and thus used symbolically for those who died as martyrs of the faith like San Lorenzo Ruiz and San Pedro Calungsod. 

The palaspas is primarily made from coconut palms (Cocos nucifera L.), but other plant species such as the century plant (Agave americana L.; A. cantala Roxb.), buri (Corypha utan Lam.), and oliva (Cycas revoluta Thunb.) can also be used. Traditionally, the head of the family or the male members of each household would gather and make the palm a day or two before Palm Sunday. Nowadays, palaspas can be bought outside the church. Some palaspas are plain, while there are also those that are decorated with colorful plastic ribbons, paper flowers, and images of saints, Mary, and Jesus, among others. 

After a year, these are gathered and burned by the church wherein the collected ashes are used during Ash Wednesday, the start of the 40-day Lenten Season. Among agricultural communities in the provinces of Bohol and Batangas, ashes gathered from burnt palaspas are mixed with commercial or organic fertilizer with the belief that when scattered in the cultivated areas, these will increase their harvest. 

To further commemorate the Lenten season, the #NationalMuseumPH presents a lecture and demonstration on palaspas by Mr. Nocheseda accessible through these links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeSFTtr6DGc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlRuExzglLk. 

#MahalNaAraw2022
#HolyWeek2022
#Palaspas
#PalmSunday

Text and video by the NMP Ethnology Division and Exhibition, Editorial and Media Production Services Division

The lecture and demonstration were shown during the Laga, Tunos ken Pammati Story-Sharing and Demonstration of the NMP Ilocos on 22 March 2021

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