On Palm Sunday in France the custom is to distribute sprigs of boxwood for a donation. Here, a mix of local scouting troupes and bohemians set up stands this morning outside of the royal parish, Notre Dame de Versailles. The tradition is to enter a church with a sprig to have it blessed, then to keep it until Ash Wednesday of the following year. As a sign of penitence and mourning, it is burned; then with the cinders a priest may trace a cross of the penitent's forehead.
Vocabulary
le dimanche des Rameaux: Palm Sunday
un rameau: a branch
un buis: a boxwood
For baroque music lovers: Jean-Phillipe Rameau's Rondeau des Indes Galantes and views of the Château de Versailles
© 2012 P.B. Lecron
For baroque music lovers: Jean-Phillipe Rameau's Rondeau des Indes Galantes and views of the Château de Versailles
© 2012 P.B. Lecron
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