The Holy Easter or Jesus´ Resurrection is the most important religious holiday over the year and it is closely related to other holidays, such as Jesus´Ascension or Palm Sunday.
The beginning of the Holy Week, according to the Christian calendar, is marked by a spring Sunday, uncommonly beautiful, a day filled with flowers when all those bearing flower names are celebrated. It is usually a shinny day governed by a rule or saying, according to which, if this day, Palm Sunday is nice and shinny, then the Resurrection Day - Holy Easter day will miraculously be the same.
The origin of the holiday is related to Jesus´ entrance in Jerusalem and his grandiose welcome and acclamation by the people: thousands of citizens of the citadel would throw away their clothes to welcome the man riding on the back of a donkey, bearing palm and olive garlands and branches in their hands and acclaiming Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! After a memorable day in which he crossed over the holy fortress of Jerusalem, walking over the flowers and the clothes that would have proudly competed with the red carpet of today, enjoying kinglike tributes, Jesus would afterwards live the rest of his days in a forever increasing tragedy: Judas´ betrayal, the arrest, Jesus´ slapping in front of the grand Jewish Priest, his lashing by Rome´s warriors, forcing him to wear the crown of thorns and carry his own cross, too heavy to carry even for a strong man, practically unbearable for his exhausted and tortured body.
For us, the Christians of nowadays, Palm Sunday is rejoiced with willow branches (symbol of life continuity and everlastingness), a joyful spring day experienced by all through nature’s fiery revival that makes us all rejoice and wish to live life in peace and love for humans. May the holy light of this religious holiday fill us with unsoiled thoughts during the Holy Week and the supreme sacrifice together with the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection to fill our hearts with light that will forever guide our ways towards making long lasting hopes come true!
The image represented on the postage stamp of the issue is the one on the iconostasis of the „Scaune” Church in Bucharest, built in 1611 by Atanasie of Tarnovo, according to historian Ionescu-Sion in his paper “Bucharest history”.
