Traditionally, people in Bulgaria associate the feasts of Lazarus Saturday (Lazarovden) and Palm Sunday (Tsvetnitsa) with the coming of spring and the scent of blossoming trees and flowers. Each year, these two holidays take place in the week preceding Easter and they are movable feasts dependant on the date of Easter. In Bulgaria, these are two of the best-loved Christian holidays that people connect with health, long life, prosperity and fertility. Folk tradition has it that on Lazarus Saturday, young girls perform the folk ritual called “lazaruvane” in Bulgarian. This is a folk ritual in which young maidens pick flowers and willow branches and decorate the doors of their houses with them on Palm Sunday. In church terminology, this day is called “Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem” and the service consists of a festive liturgy including a special prayer for the blessing of the willow branches. “The focus during these two holidays should not be shifted to flowers and folk customs, because each Christian should know what exactly happened on those days”, Father Kliment Harizanov, professor in theology at the Sofia Ecclesiastical Academy, said to a Radio Bulgaria reporter:

“On these two holidays, we mark events of tremendous importance for the salvation of our souls. On Lazarus Saturday, Jesus Christ resurrected his friend Lazarus who was already buried and had been in the grave for four days. While still alive, Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary often had the Son of God visiting their home. Once, when Jesus was in the lands on the opposite side of the River Jordan, Lazarus fell seriously ill. His sisters immediately sent word of his illness reach Jesus, hoping that the Messiah would head for Bethany to heal him. However, Jesus purposefully arrived too late, finding everyone in mourning of the already deceased Lazarus. Martha and Maria addressed him with the words: “If you had been here, he would not have died”, and he replied: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me shall live, even though he dies”. Upon saying this, he went to Lazarus’s grave and called to his dead friend, and to the utter astonishment of everyone present, Lazarus rose from the grave. You can imagine the joy of his sisters who witnessed this miracle. The Holy Apostle John says that Jesus wept then He learned of Lazarus’s death. But we can safely say that He did not weep for Lazarus only, but for the death and the suffering of humankind in general.”

Lazarus risen from the dead!

The tidings of Lazarus’s resurrection in Bethany spread like lightning. “When the Chief Priests heard of this, at first they began worrying that all people would follow Jesus as the new Messiah and they would lose their influence”, Father Kliment explains. “So, they decided to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. This is a very powerful proof that the crucifixion of our Saviour did not happen by accident, that it was not the result of a misunderstanding, but was an intentional and purposeful attempt to crush God on the part of Pharisees and Chief Priests”, Father Kliment says. On the next day, Jesus set off to Jerusalem. The Church marks the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. “The official church dogmas say that on this day, willow branches should be blessed to remind people of the palm leaves children held in their hands and waved at Jesus”, Father Kliment Harizanov explains.

“Then, two of Jesus’ disciples, John and Jacob, raised their voices in prayer: “Lord, let us sit next to you in Thy Kingdom”. Although Jesus had said many times that the Heavenly Kingdom does not have a mundane dimension, the Holy Apostles could not get rid of the thought of earthly glory. They understood very easily the idea of God’s glory but they somehow found it grasp the notion that first, He would have to be desecrated, crucified and would have to die and only then could he be resurrected. The residents of Jerusalem, probably feeling intoxicated by Lazarus’s resurrection in Bethany, hailed Jesus as the Messiah. They expected that He would proclaim himself the new king and will free the Jews from the Roman oppression. The Saviour, however, did not proclaim Himself King because his Kingdom was an earthly domain. When he entered Jerusalem riding a donkey, children rejoiced and covered the land he stepped upon with palm leaves, crying out: “Hosanna in the Highest!”
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord — the King of Israel!” Seeing the joy of the crowds, the Pharisees and the Chief Priests were pervaded by envy and spite. They turned to Jesus with the words: “Tell them to be silent”, and he said unto them: “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out”. It seems that the hearts of the Chief Priests were harder than stone because Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem could not change their minds. When Jesus learned that people wanted to proclaim Him King, he retreated to Bethany to spend the night because he was not after earthly glory”, Father Kliment Harizanov says.
Upon His last entry into Jerusalem, Jesus went to the Temple and He angrily overturned the tables of the moneychangers and merchants who were trading in coins and selling things in the church. He turned to them, saying: “Is it not written My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers!”. As Priest Kliment says, this made the Chief Priests, the Elders and the Pharisees hated Jesus even more and they started devising ways of arresting him and reasons to kill Him, an event took place only several days later. 

Translated by: Rossitsa Petcova