This Year's Palm Donkey

Somewhere in the beginning of the last decade we adopted a small tradition in our home on Palm Sunday. I learned this custom after reading Customs & Traditions of the Catholic Family. In this book, Maria Augusta Trapp shares the following Austrian family custom: "The children in the house have some extra fun on the morning of Palm Sunday. On this one morning of the year every one of them wants to be out of bed first. Then they congregate before the door of the one member of the family who happens to sleep longest and at the top of their lungs they shout! "Palm Ass, Palm Ass!" This privilege of the children to shout loudly throughout the house on Palm Sunday morning must go back to those children on the first Palm Sunday, who greeted their Lord and Master with shouts of jubilations as He came riding on the back of an ass."

Now, we don't quite do it that way. We adapted it to just name the longest sleeper "Palm Donkey" for the day. This year's happens to be the littlest one. Poor Jean-Marie is oblivious and just frowns at us when he's referred to his temporary name! But, it generates many giggles;)