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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

Branch Sunday

One of the medieval English names for Palm Sunday

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Branch Sunday, one of the medieval English names for Palm Sunday. The difficulty of procuring palms for that day’s ceremonies led to the substitution of boughs of yew, willow, or other native trees. The Sunday was often designated by the names of these trees, as “Yew Sunday” or by the general term “Branch Sunday”. (See Palm Sunday.)

JOHN B. PETERSON


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