The Praise Team at Moving River Ministries plans to be singing, dancing and handing out palm fronds in front of their Wilkes-Barre church in honor of Palm Sunday this morning.
A small congregation at Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church in Nanticoke also will celebrate the beginning of Holy Week — not with palm but with branches cut from pussy willow bushes that Johanna Longenberger lovingly planted more than 30 years ago.
And as people of the Jewish faith begin the 8-day Passover celebration this weekend, Essy Davidowitz of Kingston will be treasuring her first face-to-face meeting with her great-grandson, William Davidowitz, who is just 2 months old and named after her late husband.
From new life to age old traditions, there is much to celebrate this weekend — even though the community is still dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
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“I would like to say yes (that we’re rounding the corner), but I don’t think I can,” said Lisa McGahee, wife of Pastor Adam McGahee of Moving River Ministries. “Last year we didn’t know anyone with COVID, and this year we do.”
Noting that part of church’s Palm Sunday service will be live-streamed from the sanctuary, McGahee said, “Our online attendance has grown tremendously.”
But everyone is welcome to drive or walk up to the church, at 439 South Main St., between 10 a.m. and noon on Palm Sunday, where the Praise Team, wearing masks and gloves and, if need be, carrying umbrellas, will be happy to hand out palm fronds and crosses made of woven palm, to all comers.
“It will be completely socially distant,” McGahee said.
The reason Christians might hold palm branches while saying a prayer on Palm Sunday is because the day commemorates a Biblical event when Jesus was welcomed by a happy crowd as he entered Jerusalem. According to the story, he was riding a colt or donkey, and people laid palm branches on the ground in front of him.
While some local churches will be handing out branches to worshippers during or after Sunday services, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Dallas, for one, opened its doors on Saturday for church members to pick up palm and take it home, where they would have it on hand as they watch live-streamed Palm Sunday services today.
But palm fronds are not a universal tradition. “They don’t have palm trees in Ukraine,” Johanna Longenberger said, explaining why Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church in Nanticoke has a tradition of holding long pussy willow branches.
After her father died in the mid-1980s she planted pussy willows in his memory by the church rectory, and those are the ones the congregation will use today as it begins its celebration of Holy Week — the seven days leading to Easter.
At the same time, Biblical scholars will point out the reason Jesus entered Jerusalem on that long-ago Sunday, was to celebrate Passover, a feast that commemorates the Jewish people being set free from slavery in Egypt.
Jewish families around the world still celebrate a Passover meals, which usually includes a seder plate filled with traditional foods, rich with symbolism, such as an egg to represent new life, and bitter herbs to represent the tears of slavery.
There’s also a mixture called haroset, similar to applesauce and resembling mortar, that symbolizes the work the Jewish people were forced to perform in Egypt.
“When my sons were growing up they loved to help with the haroset,” Essy Davidowitz said, explaining that the her recipe included McIntosh apples, sweet wine and walnuts. “I would have them take the walnuts, put them in plastic bags and walk on them. The walnuts would come out the perfect size. You don’t want them mashed, and you don’t want them finely ground.”
Years ago, Davidowitz said, her family’s Passover gatherings could easily include 30 relatives and friends. She said this year’s scaled down gathering would include about 10 people — and she would contribute the freshly ground horseradish.
Since she’s been vaccinated against the coronavirus, she especially looking forward to seeing extended family members, including that new great-grandson. “He has wonderful parents who take a picture of him everyday, and I get that on my phone,” she said. “But this will be the first time that it’s ‘real.’ And I am so thrilled.”
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