2013Easter - Set

Greatest Christian holiday – Easter – falls in the time of the renewal of nature, of return from dormancy and of new blossoming. Matter and spirit communicate with each other in symbols and thus the entire nature can be a message about immortality and a garden with signs of hope. What a garden can do, can do any of its branches. And each of them grows from the well of time that has no bottom. One of Easter's traditions is blessing of olive and palm branches on Palm Sunday. And where they do not grow, willow or Cornelian cherry will serve as well. Olive and palm branches take us to the East, to the Holy Land where the folks waved them acclaiming Jesus’ entering Jerusalem: following the first part of the scenario “hosanna - crucify him”. These olive and palm branches were a symbol of piece. In old Rome, palm fronds were used to welcome emperors. And, further, palm fronds were the signs of immortality also in ancient Egypt. When we cheerfully take them today to church for blessing, we have to bear in mind that we are waving inconceivably ancient fans of time that have preserved their meaning in all times.

While olive branches – not to mention other plants - are more widely spread and common, palm branches are much more influenced by geography: they are offshoots of the south. In our parts they are characteristic of south Dalmatia, especially of Dubrovnik area. Palm Sunday in the County of Dubrovnik is called „Neđeja od pôme“ (local term for Palm Sunday); palms, (locally: paomas or pomas) are small masterpieces of patience and skill that would - due to their beauty and particularity - also deserve to be entered into world heritage. Young fronds - heart of palm – are cut into several parts and leaves are separated in two parts and used to make braids. The braided part must be held with fingers so that the braiding might be continued. On the peninsula of Pelješac, especially in Ston, from the pith of fig sapling a dove is made (Dove of Pelješac) and put on the top of palm webbing. Well-woven poma preserves its firm shape also when it dries out. Big pomas made of whole branch are put in church. On their top a cross bent from two palm leaves is fixed.

The branches are brought and thrust into barns and fields invoking blessing for crops and protection for people, houses and estates from disasters. Old, last years' poma (palm's frond) must in no case be thrown away as rubbish, but should be either buried or, more often, burnt; the ashes are used on Ash Wednesday in church ritual. This is a wonderful example of recycling symbolic values by recycling matter, of „sawing“ holidays and of consistency of year and life.
Let the poma- this symbol and message of Easter - now on small stamp of Croatian Post, carry in all directions a wish for renewal and joy.

Željka Čorak