Spanish views from a small town

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. All over the world Catholics attended Mass where palm fronds were blessed and then taken home to be put in a prominent place. In other places (such as here, in Galicia), a small olive branch is taken to Mass. Some people cut off such a large branch it looks like they're taking a small tree to be blessed. (My mother-in-law has sometimes done that; then distributed smaller branches among sons who didn' t go to church.) Then, there are white palm fronds that have been on sale for the past week in florists' shops. Some of those are fashioned by hand into different forms. They come from Elche, where the palm trees grow, and where the braiding of elaborate palm fronds into beautiful sculptures is well-known throughout Spain. The origin of the tradition is officially around the year 1371, but ancient Iber ian pottery found near Elche a lready had braided palm fronds depicted on it. The palm fronds are treated so th at , as they grow, light doesn...