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# Happy Palm Sunday!
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/s-prazdnikom-svetlogo-verbnogo-voskresenia/
- Published: 2025-04-13T11:55:40.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:30:32.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Moscow, Observations, Mores, Society

I have a question, addressed perhaps not even to the rectors of Moscow's churches so much as to observant citizens at large. What, exactly, is so difficult about bringing in pussy willow for parishioners and setting up stalls with it on the grounds near the church? Candles are sold, holy water is on offer, but willow is nowhere to be found. Two people came up in church to ask where they might find some.

The city's markets have all been destroyed or turned into hipster food courts that nobody needs, private street trading is forbidden, and one still has to make an effort to track down some granny selling willow somewhere. I have watched this situation for years now and never cease to marvel at it. I describe what I have observed specifically in Moscow, in the central districts.

At times one cannot help wondering: is Moscow really the capital of the largest Orthodox country in the world? There are no nationwide Processions of the Cross through the streets (people used to know by heart what the ancient banners in every Moscow church looked like), there are no willow markets, though the feast was always widely celebrated, there are no Easter festivities anywhere, yet cyclists flourish with their parades and closures of the city practically every other weekend in the warm season. Might one not replace at least a few of the officials who campaign so zealously for sport with people who would safeguard the centuries-old Orthodox way of life in God-protected Orthodox Russia, home to the largest Orthodox population in the world?

In Italy, olive sprigs of every sort are on sale or offered in return for a donation in Catholic churches everywhere, with a pretty ribbon or a little icon, and all week long, in some places even after Easter. Here, go and see for yourselves, the day is, thank heavens, such a sunny one!