Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday)
Description:
These celebrations are very similar, but rarely fall on the same day. Every few years, both holidays coincide in time: so it happened in the past 2007 - April 1, Canadian Catholics and Protestants celebrated Palm Sunday, and Orthodox Christians, of whom in Canada about 5% of the total population, celebrated, as in Russia, Palm Sunday.
If you try to imagine that 5% of the population is simply one in twenty Canadians, it turns out that the share of Canadians celebrating Palm Sunday in Canada will be, perhaps, not much less than the share of true Orthodox parishioners standing on this day with branches of willow in the churches of Russia.
An ambiguous situation is obtained - in the Orthodox churches of Canada on this day, the branches of the faith are consecrated, and the service "Opening the Gates" is performed, and in Catholic churches at the same time, a church holiday is also celebrated, preceding the Easter week, based on the Gospel story of the entrance of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem, where the people greeted the Savior, covering his path with palm branches.
But there seems to be no antagonistic contradiction in this Canadian situation. For whatever the attributes of the worshippers, Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans or Orthodox Christians, no matter how different the texts of their prayers and in whatever languages they may sound, it is still a common appeal of free and peaceful people to good and light, their common hope for happiness and their common faith in love.