Palm Sunday with no palms

Today is Christian celebration of Palm Sunday (analogue of Passion Sunday for Catholics) and all Russians tend to celebrate it, more or less, even those non-religious ones. Obviously, there are no palms available in Slavic countries (we really can’t count in those few palms growing around Sochi), so the palm was replaced with “верба” (“verba”) – a type of willow that blossoms when snow is still on and before it sprouts leaves, and before it’s in full bloom, the flowers form small fluffy white clusters on its branches. These branches are gathered mercilessly every year and then sold in every nook and on every corner, and everyone are buying them to put in a vase. Most Russians aren’t aware of the true nature of this tradition - with palm trees and Jesus entering Jerusalem, and stuff like that – but we all love having verba flowers in our homes and we call it “вербное воскресенье”, “Verba Sunday” – in some regions a first sign of spring coming.

Actually, i don’t know much about the original celebration – not a church-loving person here, you see – but i love verba flowers as much as anyone else. Sitting at home with influenza, i may possible even brave going out to get some verba for myself later in the day, who knows. It’s really being sold everywhere:

I believe, that would be either silver willow or pussy willow, not sure which one in English. People bring it to churches, where the flowers are consecrated and blessed and are said to acquire special powers, like you might heal someone’s headache by hitting their head with a verba stick. I think, that’s the best disguise ever for allowing you to hit other (possibly, very annoying during the previous year) people with a stick.

There are many old signs and omens associated with Verba Sunday – hopefully, no one beliefs in them anymore, but they are curious none the less:

Wind blowing during Verba Sunday means the whole year will be windy.
If Verba Sunday is a sunny day, then fruits and cereals shall yield a fine harvest.
A person who wants to get rid of their shyness, must drive a peg made of verba in their house’s wall (fuck yeah, i stuck my wall with a willow peg! i am not shy anymore!).
Also, according to old folk beliefs, blessed verba, thrown against a wind should calm a storm, stuck into a field should keep crops safe and thrown into a flame should extinguish it.