Posted completely sooc. Posting early, taking Michaela out for the day. Will catch up on commenting later.
Yesterday was Palm Sunday.
Part of the Palm Sunday celebrations is the blessing of olive twigs. The faithful can then one or two home. We heard Sunday mass on Saturday evening and the twigs had not been blessed yet. Yesterday morning, I was out walking on the Sliema promenade with my brother, Joe. I did not take my camera with me as I wasn’t in the mood of taking pictures. Christine had told me to get her an olive twig or two. to keep as we had heard mass on Saturday evening. While passing through Balluta we saw the local parish priest in the parish square blessing the olive twigs so we stopped to take part and then take a few twigs home.
Here is a shot I took of them later in the evening.
There used to be a tradition in Malta, I don’t know if it was elsewhere too, to use these blessed olive twigs to clear and safeguard the home from evil eyes. I remember when I was a little boy, my grandma used to put these twigs into a frying pan, put some oil and burn them on the stove. Then she used to take up the smoking pan and carry it around the rooms of the house mumbling prayers (I suppose) while us kids used to have fun running after her. Unfortunately this tradition has been lost in time.
Thank you so very much for looking and for your encouraging comments on yesterday’s picture.
lovely image and as a catholic(not a good 'tho)--never heard the ritual:)----God bless--:)just taking this chance to comment while waiting for the contructor--!!
Lovely shot on the dark background. In the UK crosses made of palm leaves are burned on Ash Wednesday (just before Lent) and used in blessings. New palm crosses are given out on Palm Sunday. I've not heard of the olive ritual that you have though...
That is very interesting that you use olive branches instead of palms- although to me it actually makes more sense. When Jesus road into Jerusalem on "Palm Sunday" he came directly through the olive groves so it would stand to reason the "branches" the Scripture speaks of would have been olive tree branches. I know palm fronds were probably used too- as those trees can also be found near Jerusalem, but it's interesting to me that the Maltese retained the olive branch instead of the palms. Very nice!
sounds like she was doing a smudging of some sort - where you take herbs or in this case the olive leaves, heat them and use the smoke to purify and clean out evil spirits in the home - First Nation people use sweet grass in their ceremonies
Take you time