Palm Sunday: Holy Week begins around the world
Palm Sunday: Holy Week begins around the world
Palm Sunday is a Christian observance that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.
Pope Francis asperges holy water as he celebrates a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, March 29, 2015. Tens of thousands joined the pope with olive and palm branches in St. Peter's Square. They ushered in the holy week, ahead of Easter. (AP / Andrew Medichini)
Faithful gather in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican to attend a Palm Sunday Mass celebrated by Pope Francis. (AP / Riccardo De Luca)
In Germany, processions take place with life-size figures from the Passion of Christ under the presence of several thousand people. Believers carry a cross during heavy rain in the old town of Heiligenstadt, in central Germany. (AP / Jens Meyer)
Indian Christians hold palm leaves as they walk in a procession to mark Palm Sunday in Bhubaneswar. Christians comprise two per cent of India's more than 1.2 billion people. (AP / Biswaranjan Rout)
Roman Catholic clergymen carry palm fronds during the Palm Sunday procession at Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally believed by many to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ, in Jerusalem's Old City. (AP / Oded Balilty)
In late February, the Islamic State group took captive more than 220 Christians from villages in Syria's northeastern province of Hassakeh. Since then, scores of Assyrian Christians have fled to safety in neighboring Lebanon, which has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East. Assyrian Christian women attend Mass marking Palm Sunday east of Beirut, Lebanon. (AP / Hussein Malla)
Many churches in northern Nigeria were only half-full Sunday after large numbers of Christians fled before the elections, fearing violence and retribution after election results. Meanwhile, Nigerian Christians attend mass at St Theresa's Catholic Church, in Yola, eastern Nigeria. (AP / Sunday Alamba)
A Filipino devotee waits for the blessing of palm fronds during Palm Sunday rites outside the Holy Family Parish church in suburban Quezon, north of Manila, Philippines. (AP / Aaron Favila)
Priests carry palm leaves during a Palm Sunday procession in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, March 29, 2015. (AP / Alik Keplicz)
Penitents take part in a procession during Palm Sunday in Pamplona, northern Spain. (AP / Alvaro Barrientos)
