Today is Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week. Palm Sunday commemorates the entry of Jesus Christ into the city of Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, as told in the Gospels:

“On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, ‘Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, ‘Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt’.” (Gospel of St John, King James Version.)

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is usually marked with big processions in Spain, just like it was in England back in medieval and Tudor times, so I thought I’d share this video I recorded a couple of years ago in Tijola, Almeria, in the Andalucia region of southern Spain. It will give you an idea of what things were like in pre-Reformation England.