Vendors start selling fronds for Palm Sunday

Despite scorching heat, vendors started selling on Saturday palm fronds that Filipino Roman Catholics use to mark Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week. In Manila, some vendors sat near church entrances waiting for people to buy their palm fronds. Others prepared their palm fronds at nearby streets.

Most of the vendors expect to sell many palm fronds on Sunday, especially when families go to church for Palm Sunday Mass. Still, they said they hoped churchgoers attending an anticipated Sunday mass on Saturday evening would buy palm fronds from them. Vendors from Bicol arrived in Pasig City as early as last Thursday to seek permits from the city government to sell their wares, according to a report on dzBB radio. The report quoted Lydia Buenaventura, one of the vendors, as saying she is planning to sell the palm fronds for as low as P10 each. On Palm Sunday, Filipino Christians will recall the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, days before his death. Churchgoers are expected to buy palm fronds and wave these when the priest comes out of the church to bless them. Some of the palm fronds for this year's Palm Sunday will be burned, with the ashes used for next year's Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lent. — JE, GMA News