Palm Sunday

This holiday, the day after St. Lazarus' Day, commemorates the reception of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem by its inhabitants, and is celebrated by the decoration of Greek churches with palm and bay branches (or, in some areas, myrtle sprigs).

Sometimes the leaves of the palm are shaped as a cross, star, or moon and placed in the iconostasis inside private homes to bring luck to the dwellers, the palm also believed to bestow fertility to women, animals and plants.