LIFE: Palm Sunday at the Vatican

CHIAVARI, Italy –Today is Palm Sunday.  The church ladies have been out selling braided palms in the local street markets all week, while others have been busy decorating their churches with palm fronds and braided palm crosses. It’s an old custom that is kept alive to remember the crowds that held palms and olive branches as symbols of peace and joy when they greeted Christ as he entered Jerusalem six days before his passion. 

 

St. Peter's Square at the Vatican and Caligula's Obelisk

In Rome’s St Peter’s Square two thousand woven palms have been blessed and will be given away. One hundred palms have already been given to the Cardinals, with the largest one reserved for Pope Francis.  

The palms are a gift from the Ligurian towns of Bordighera and San Remo and are part of a long tradition that began in 1586. That was the year Pope Sisto V decided to move an ancient Egyptian obelisk that had been brought to Rome by the Roman Emperor Caligula in the year 37 BC from its location in Caligula’s Circus to St. Peter’s Square.  

 

Pope Francis

The Pope’s workmen got busy building the foundation needed to support the heavy obelisk and by the scheduled installation date of September 10, 1586, all was ready. Hundreds of Romans gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The monument, which weighed 350 tons, would need 900 workers, 140 horses and 44 winches to move it and set it up. Who would want to miss that show? No one. 

The Vatican’s Chief Engineer, Domenico Fontana, warned the Pope that the project was very risky and that total silence would be needed to raise the obelisk once it was in St. Peter’s Square. Fontana said that even the slightest sound could distract a worker and result in the obelisk crashing down on the crowd. In other words, a whisper could cause a total disaster.

 

 Bishops Carrying Ligurian Palms

The Pope turned to the crowd and said, “if anyone speaks or makes a sound during this delicate and risky operation, they will be put to death by my order.” As the obelisk was slowly raised, the ropes holding it began to weaken and the obelisk began to wobble perilously.

 Everyone, including the Pope, was holding their breath. It soon became obvious that the ropes were not going to hold, they were starting to fray and were almost at their breaking point. The ancient Egyptian obelisk was in serious danger of crashing to the ground.  

 

 The Work of Making Parmureli Starts Long Before Palm Sunday

Just then, Benedetto Bresca, a ship’s captain from the town of Bordighera, cried out – “aiga ae corde!” Put water on the ropes. The Chief Engineer spun around to see who dared to speak, but then he realized the Captain was right. He ordered the ropes to be doused with water. They soon became taut and strong and the obelisk was raised without further danger of falling. Six days later it was blessed and consecrated.  

In spite of the Pope’s demand for silence, the Captain wasn’t punished for his outburst, instead he was praised. As a reward, the Pope asked him what he wanted and Captain Bresca said what he really wanted was for his town of Bordighera to provide Ligurian palms for the Holy Week ceremonies at the Vatican.

It's Slow Painstaking Work

You may think that Captain Breca’s story is pure fiction but there is no denying the fact that Bordighera and San Remo, which are on the Ligurian Riviera of the Palms, do have had the exclusive right to supply the Vatican with palms for Palm Sunday, and those rights are in perpetuity.

 It’s been more than four centuries since that day the Captain spoke out, and the cities of San Remo and Bordighera have been sending palms to the Vatican ever since. They are the palms used for the Vatican’s traditional ceremony of the blessing of the palms on Palm Sunday. For this special ceremony the palms, which are known as parmureli, are woven and braided into intricate sculptures large and small.  

Parmureli Are Sold in the Markets Throughout Italy

If you happen to be at the Vatican on Ash Wednesday, the ashes you receive will be the ashes of the palms from Bordighera and San Remo. The Vatican, and many churches throughout Italy, save their palms from Palm Sunday and burn them for Ash Wednesday. The Church considers the ashes from the blessed palms to be sacramental and endowed with the power to promote good thoughts and increase devotion.

LIFE: The Party if NOT Over

CHIAVARI, Italy – Okay, here’s the story. Carnival is over, right? It ended this week. Now we have 40 days until Easter. That’s what I always thought too, until I moved to Saronno, a small town about 20 minutes from Milan.

So Adorable

I had just written and posted a blog post about the grand finale of the festive pre-Lent celebrations at the Carnival in Venice, and then I went out to pick up some groceries. Much to my surprise the streets of Saronno were full of kids dressed like little pink princesses and Johnny Depp pirates with eye patches and gray plastic swords, all giggling and laughing and throwing confetti and silly string at each other.

And it wasn’t just the kids. In Saronno’s main piazza, right in front of the Cathedral, there were stands selling colorful candies and other goodies and everyone was acting like Carnival was still in full swing. What’s going on here, I asked myself. Don’t these people know Carnival is over?

 Palermo, Sicily - Joy Everywhere

So I went home and started re-checking my Carnival facts thinking I would have to rewrite and repost my blog and apologize for getting my facts wrong. But truthfully Carnival really did end on Fat Tuesday and there really was a grand finale along Venice’s Grand Canal with candles and costumes and a gondola parade, and Lent really had started. But for some reason the news hadn’t made it to Saronno yet.

I decided to call Andrea, a local guy who knows about these things and ask him if he knew what was going on.

“On sure”, he said, “that’s easy. Here in Saronno we don’t follow the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, we follow the Ambrosian Calendar and for us Lent doesn’t start on Ash Wednesday, we don’t have Ash Wednesday, it starts next Sunday.

 

Milan's Duomo - Could Have Been Vatican North

Oh, well, that explains it. Are you kidding me? For all my life the church was the church, the rules were the rules and now I find out that’s not true? There are two calendars and what else? Are there two Christmas’, two Easters? Can I make up my own calendar and have Christmas in May when the weather is a little better?

This is so confusing. So, I go back to the internet, Google in Ambrosian calendar and oh my God! up pops a whole load of stuff connected to Saint Ambrose. If you have ever visited the Duomo in Milan you already know that Saint Ambrose is the patron saint of the city. He was also the Bishop of Milan in the 4^th century when there wasn’t just ONE Catholic religion, but a bunch of them, including the church in Rome, all trying to be the main ONE.

So while the Roman rite, from the church in Rome, eventually became the dominant Catholic rite, the Ambrosian/Milanese rite has managed to hang on to a group of followers as well. At least in Lombardy – until you get to Como, that is. In Como they follow the Roman calendar, or maybe their own calendar. I’m so confused at this point I really don’t know.

 

And the Winner of the War of the Rites Is . . . . . . .

While the Roman calendar and the Ambrosian/Milanese calendar are more or less the same, there are some basic differences. For example, in the Ambrosian calendar Advent has six weeks and not four, Lent starts four days later so there is no Ash Wednesday and carnival doesn’t end until Sabato Grasso (Fat Saturday) instead of Martedi Grasso (Fat Tuesday). And one more big difference is that mass is not said on Fridays during Lent and communion is not offered either.

I also discovered that the Ambrosian/Milanese rite is only oe of several variations on this calendar theme. There are others. The Mozarabic rite is a Catholic rite that was first practiced in Spain in the 7^th century. They too have their own calendar and their own feast days like December 18^th which is the Mozarabic Feast of the Incarnation, and January 23, the feast day of Saint Ildephonsus, both of which are still celebrated.

 Carnivale Fano, Italy - Photo Antonino Palella

In the area in and around Venice they practiced the Aquilela rite, which is more like the Ambrosian/Milanese rite than the Roman rite and lasted up until the 16^th century when the Roman rite won out. In France the traditions of the Gallican liturgy were popular and are still followed in the city of Lyon. While in Braga, the oldest city in Portugal and one of the oldest Christian cities in the world, the Archdiocese of Braga practices an entirely different rite, the rite of Braga, just as they still do every now and again in the city of Providence, Rhode Island.

Whew. This is all so very confusing. Truthfully, I was never great at keeping up with all the rules and regs anyway so what I’m going to do is get my oh-so-blonde Paris Hilton wig, my red faux fur boa and my red high heel shoes off the top shelf of the closet, call up some friends and have my own private Carnival. As for Lent, I think what I’m going to do is give up trying to figure all this stuff out and just keep dancing in the streets till the party’s really over.