Palm Sunday Gifts Sagrada Familia Placa Market Barcelona City Street Editorial Image

Traditional palm stalks and leaves for Palm Sunday celebration on market at Placa de La Sagrada Familia.In Barcelona there is a Palm Sunday procession. All churches in Barcelona have Palm Sunday masses, which usually include palm blessing ceremony, which is when the parish priests go outside the church to bless the congregation, who carry palm stalks and leaves -palmónes y palmas. The boys carry the palmónes which are the tall palm stalks - and the girls carry the palmas, which are smaller and shorter stems with intricately woven crosses. All of the childrens palm leaves have small bags of sweets or toys on the palms tied to them, and are often decorated with Catalan senyera ribbons. If you visit the market by the Sagrada Familia, where palmónes and palmas are sold on the days leading up to Palm Sunday, you can find many different sizes and variations on display. One of the traditions of Easter in Spain is that the Godmother of the children is responsible for making or getting the palm leaves for her Godchildren. In the old days this probably meant weaving them by hand, but nowadays most Godmothers buy them at the market.