Happy Easter everyone especially my family and friends in the UK. I hope you all have a chocalicious day.
No chocolate for me so far but I did receive a welcomed skype call from my kids who excitedly told me every single detail of their Easter Egg Hunt….of course I was not jealous in the slightest.
Easter is not celebrated until next week in Azerbaijan but today is an important day for them and I went of to church this morning to see the difference. Was a very humbling experience and discovered a tradition that I really liked and thought I’d share.
Today is Palm Sunday but I was informed they call it Willow Sunday for the reason below.
The streets lining the church and the church itself were lined with flower sellers.
The tradition here goes something like this.
When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he was welcomed with Palm Leaves. In Russia where Orthodox Christians don’t grow Palm Trees they celebrate with branches from a Willow Tree. These are bought and taken home for one year where they believe the Willow branch will protect thier home. After one year the branches are laid at the graves of thier loved ones and a new Willow branch is bought again to continue the cycle. Due to the history of the two countries this practice has also been introduced to Azerbaijan.
What a wonderful tradition this is and one I could really respect.
These were the other flowers for sale which are the first flowers of spring and bought for decoration.
Hope you enjoyed.
For me it’s back to the book. Planning a major plot change that I have been avoiding but plan to ace it tomorrow night.
Take care everyone x
