Palm frond weaving - an Easter tradition

This morning we woke up to another snowy day in Copenhagen! Easter starts this Sunday, and we are all more or less desperate for some real spring. So let's enjoy ourselves a moment with a lovely Easter tradition from some of the sunnier places in the world (such places where palm trees grow).

Making beautiful woven ornaments from palm fronds or leaves, is an Easter tradition for Palm Sunday (the day commemorating the triumphant return of Jesus into Bethlehem, where all his followers would wave palm leaves and greet him as a king). 

I have been curious about this tradition for a long time, having seen it on Pinterest and other places where folk art, DIY or crafts are shared - lovely and intricately woven crosses, flowers, crowns or animals - many Christian symbols, of course, but also poles or flower like pieces, like the palaspas above, from the Philippines, where the tradition is very strong. The palaspas are carried in great Easter processions, and sometimes also adorned with straw flowers.

There seem to be almost no limit to the many pattern variations and techniques - and the tradition exists in most of Latin America, in many catholic churches in USA and is also widespread in Italy.

In Florida and other places in the Southern USA, I have seen street vendors making quite non-religious sun hats, roses, grasshoppers and other pretty little things, so of course the material and the techniques are used for all kinds of things.

I find all these simple and so beautiful weavings very inspiring, and would love to try and have a go at it, if I can find some strong enough grass like plant in Denmark, that would do. LOTS of tutorial videos on YouTube, just search for 'easter', 'palm weaving', 'palaspas' and you'll find them. 

And to my joy, I discovered that it is also big in Ethiopia, a country that holds a special place in my heart (our son was born there), where the orthodox Christian community has a big Easter feast called Hosanna, where they give each other home made palm leaf rings - called Hosanna-rings! Aren't they great? The technique used here, reminds me of these paper necklaces.

Image credits, from top:

Palm Sunday in Mexico, Pinterest
Philippine 'palaspas' by Elmer Nocheseda
Domingo de Ramos palaspas from the Philippines, by Mike Alda

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More Philippines: flower palaspas, and procession outside church, both Pinterest

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Details both by unknown protographers, but the wreath is by Cecilia Woodrome

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Hosanna rings and Ethiopian Hosanna procession, also found on Pinterest

Palm Sunday and start of daylight saving time

It's Palm Sunday today, and Easter begins. We have a big Easter lunch party today, and we have a ten day holiday before us - not that we will be going away to any exotic locations, we will slave away in our garden, spring clean a bit indoors and air out everything.

The best thing today: Daylight saving time starts, yaay! And most Danes wake up, trying to remember the clever little rule about the garden furniture (it's hard to translate, but it is this little memorizing trick: when spring comes, you move the garden furniture 'forwards', from the garden shed. Just like the clock - see? And in Autumn you move the furniture back. I find it totally smart, before I learned that little trick my mind was always at a loss).

I love palms. I have have yet to visit Los Angeles, but to me, these palm lined boulevards are so iconic. I have seen palms here and there, and the way they silhouette against the sky is so beautiful, and plays so well with all kinds of architecture. The wonderful sensation of picking up fresh coconuts from the sidewalk (as we did in Miami) and fallen leaves as big as yourself. It is just magic, to this Scandinavian, anyway!

Here are some black and white versions (to illustrate the my point about the silhouettes better) of palms in Marrakech (top), Addis Abeba (middle) and Miami. Addis Abeba is actually much more about eucalyptus trees, but the street we stayed in, had these lush gardens behind all kinds of ramshackle fences, and the graceful palms sort of hovered over all the dense greenery. In Marrakech, as in Miami, palms are just everywhere, and the great thing is when you see the whole, slender trunk. In the image beneath taken in front of the Koutoubia Mosque, they are painted white at the base, so pretty.

Everytime I see this book from Taschen (Taschen always make me wish I had endless book shelves, funds and hours of leisure), I think about getting it. It's a bit pricey, and having an extremely nerdy book of botanical illustrations of palms is not my highest priority, but I will probably end up giving in to it, some day.

The last image is my son running towards a pink sunset on what almost looks like a beach in paradise. It was actually in Key Largo, and not paradise at all, but when you faced the ocean and the little palm grove, it was glorious. 

Here's to longer, sunnier days!

USA trip # 2: colorful Key West

Back in May we took at bit of a US east coast road trip, from the Florida Keys in the south up to Maine as our northernmost destination. I took about a billion pictures, and sometimes I manage to organize a batch, and phew, that's gonna take some time! Here are some sunny memories from a place I really fell in love with: Key West. 

I really thought it was a magical place. The turquoise sea surrounds it to all sides and the constant, velvety breeze keeps you from melting. The gorgeous gardens behind the picket fences are crazy exotic mini jungles, and all the colonial wooden houses are so pretty. There are all kinds of palm trees, banyan trees, hibiscus and flowery cacti everywhere - even though you are basically on a tiny strip of land in the middle of the salty ocean. 

People are of the hippie nice and relaxed variety, and dresscodes and that sort of thing are nonexistent. You eat amazing seafood, drink key lime margheritas and listen to salsa music (only 90 miles to Cuba, as you are constantly reminded!). There are lots of tourists, but the noisy ones cram themselves together in five famous bars on Duval Street - and the rest of the place is very laid back and tranquil.

Here are a few of my photos - wanna see more? Go to the flickr album!

USA trip # 1: I heart Miami

Hi again - I'm back after a rather long recovery of my hand, and a lot of unusually steady hot and sunny weather here in DK. Just lately it started getting cold and rainy, so this would be a perfect time to post a little, belated postcard from beautiful, sunny Miami, starting point of an East coast road trip I took with my family back in May.

A bit to my surprise, actually, I really fell in love with the little bit of Miami we saw. We spent three days, and chose to stay at a small deco hotel in the middle of the infamous party district South Beach, even though we are a fairly quiet family travelling with a five-year old. We did not regret that! It was a lovely, surprisingly tranquil place - okay, there were lots of people hanging out at the beach front cocktail bars, but the scene was cosy and relaxed, rather than rowdy and noisy. Maybe it was the time of year (early May), I don't know? But we all loved it! To me it was first of all a haven of fantastic, kitchy, colorful and well-preserved art deco, midcentury modern and any kind of fun revival architecture you can think of, and so much more of it than I expected. The so called Deco District is lovingly well taken care of, and the lush, exotic greenery and the magnificent beach next to it, all make it a very interesting place to visit.

Here are some (mostly architectural) snapshots - and if you would like to see some more pictures, from the Cuban district Little Havana, from the gorgeous Venetian Pool in Coral Gables and a few more places, you could check out my flickr album.