Palm-weaving traditional art for many

On Palm Sunday, some Catholics in the Albany Diocese won't simply take their blessed palms home and put them on a shelf. They'll be busily weaving them into crowns, crosses and cones to decorate their homes.

According to Sister Cecilia Schmitt, OSF, author of "Palm Weaving: The Story and the Art," people have woven palms into decorative or sacred shapes for thousands of years. Besides people from tropical countries, Italians, Poles, Germans and Swedes claim palm-weaving as an ethnic tradition.

Helen Blain of St. Rita/Sacred Heart parish in Cohoes learned to weave palms from her mother, a French Canadian. "For us, it was French," she said of the tradition. "It was just something that was done in our family."

Patterns

More than 100 patterns for weaving palms exist, says Sister Cecilia, ranging from simple crosses to cornucopias, roses and doves.

She is a member of the newly organized "Palm Weavers Association," which hopes to keep the art alive for future generations.

The association is holding a National Palm Weavers Festival in Minnesota on Palm Sunday weekend, April 12-13.

Palm art

Mrs. Blain noted that when she was a child attending St. Ann's parish in Waterford, families made a donation for palms on the way into church and received a whole handful of the leaves, so there was plenty of material to weave. Today, most Catholics get just one leaf on Palm Sunday.

"They have to be [woven] when they're very fresh," Mrs. Blain explained. When she has finished weaving the palms into a cone or crown of thorn pattern, she tucks one behind a cross in the bedroom and one over a print of the Last Supper in her kitchen.

"It makes you feel like the house is blessed, because the palms are blessed," she said.

Aura

For those interested in trying the art of palm-weaving, one of the easiest designs is called "the folded aura." Sister Cecilia's directions call for two palm leaves connected at the bottom. Fold one leaf over the other at a 90-degree angle, then do the same with the other leaf.

"Continue to fold one over the other, holding the folds tightly with the left thumb," read the directions. When the entire palm has been folded, tuck the end into the stem, forming a loop. The finished product looks like the crown of thorns Christ wore at the Crucifixion.

More patterns can be found in "Palm Weaving: The Story and the Art" and an 80-minute instructional video. The book is $19.95; the video is $22. Make checks payable to St. Francis Studios, 1035 N. 32nd Ave., St. Cloud, MN 56303.

(Editor's note: Helen Blain is the mother of this article's author.)

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