Overview
- Christians marked Palm Sunday on Sunday, starting Holy Week that leads to Easter on April 5.
- Across India, large processions and Masses drew crowds in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Mizoram, Hyderabad, Vijayawada and towns in Assam.
- In Pakistan’s Rawalpindi and Islamabad, police deployed heavily at churches, adding CCTV, walk‑through gates and private guards.
- In northern Iraq, church leaders canceled street celebrations and kept services inside buildings because of the regional war and militia attacks.
- Palm branches, processions and Passion readings recalled Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, a practice rooted in the Gospels and in Jewish history described in the Maccabees.