Palm Sunday in Melk, Austria

April 17, 2011 - Our day started very early with a tour to the Benedictine Abbey and Stiftsmuseum.  As soon as we completed our tour of this Baroque abbey that was built in 1089, we went outside on the terrace that connects the museum to the cathedral.  Immediately the bells started ringing calling the parishioners to mass.  When we went inside the cathedral, I expected to see it overflowing with worshippers, but sadly there were only eight people in this massive structure.

We saw the Abbey Library, which is housed in twelve rooms and has over 100,000 volumes, many of which were copied by hand by the monks who lived there hundreds of years ago.

As we were walking back to our ship, down a very steep hill, more of the parishioners were walking up the hill carrying very interesting bouquets.  Our curiosity got the best of us, and we stopped one of them and asked about what these were.

Around Easter time in Austria, Catholics celebrate Palm Sunday (when Jesus came to Jerusalem) by making a “Palmbuschen”.  Because there are no palm trees in Austria, the Palmbuschen is made from a wooden pole, which can be up to 8 feet tall, and to which people attach twigs from pussywillows (before it flowers), and evergreen trees like yew, juniper and boxwood. The Palmbuschen is then decorated with pretzels, apples and coloured ribbons.  We even saw children carrying them decorated with colored Easter eggs.

After the Palmbuschen has been completed, people take it to a church so that it is blessed. They then take them around the fields, which are thought to bring good luck for harvests. People display their Palmbuschen in front of their houses or next to where they keep their crucifix in the house, which is meant to protect family against thunderstorms or disease. If a thunderstorm happens, they break a piece from the palmbuschen and burn it for protection.

We left Melk around 11:00 am and cruised the Wachau Valley all afternoon. The landscape here is vineyards and apricot orchards as well as forests. Many castles dot the coastline along the river, the most famous being the Schonbuhel. This is a fairly new castle and was built in 1820. It was like seeing Cinderella's castle at DisneyWorld, except this one was real.


Our ship arrived in Vienna late afternoon, and tomorrow we tour this beautiful Austrian capital.