Palm Sunday celebrations across the country

Congregants from churches across Lusaka gathered today to mark Palm Sunday, one of the most joyful and significant days in the Christian calendar, as believers commemorated the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem.

Palm Sunday falls on the Sunday before Easter and opens Holy Week — the final chapter of the Lenten season. It takes its name from the palm branches that crowds laid before Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, welcoming him as king. The moment, recorded in all four Gospels, is one of the most vivid scenes in scripture: ordinary people lining the streets, waving branches, crying out in celebration.

For Christians, Palm Sunday carries a message that runs far deeper than the pageantry of the procession. It teaches us that true greatness is found not in power or pride, but in humility and service. Jesus did not arrive on a warhorse. He arrived on a donkey — a deliberate and profound choice that spoke to the kind of king he was. It teaches us that hope can enter quietly, that change does not always announce itself with force, and that faith calls us to lay down what we have in welcome.

Palm Sunday is a reminder of those values: humility, service, and the belief that something greater is always coming.

Holy Week has begun. Easter Sunday lies ahead.