On Friday at Grace Episcopal Church, John Karluk helped create palm arrangements for parishioners to enjoy tomorrow. He uses sago palms, robellini palm, flax and fan palm to make the arrangements.

"I think it is just the entire religious aspect of what happened then, and I think everyone is getting excited about Easter being just a week away," said Karluk, chairman of the Grace Church Flower Guild. "There’s this festive atmosphere to it ... everyone is waving palms, and it is a joyous celebration. And everybody is anticipating the entire Holy Week."

The church will celebrate Palm Sunday at the 8:15 and 10:45 a.m. services.

"At both services we meet apart from the church so that we can process into the church and thereby reenact Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem," said the Rev. Doug Dailey. "The first part of the service is called the liturgy of the palms, where we remember how Jesus was welcomed when he came to Jerusalem."

The early service at Grace Episcopal will meet outside the front doors and then process into the church. The later service will meet across the street on the front yard of Brenau University and then process across the street into the church behind the choir, Dailey said.

Along with passing out palm fronds for parishioners to wave, palm frond crosses also will be worn by members.

"(The Daughters of the King) make about 300 (crosses) I believe," Karluk said.

The Rev. Fred Wendel, of Prince of Peach Catholic Church, said the use of palms during Palm Sunday has a long history.

"The palms of course tie back into the Scripture of Jesus entering into Jerusalem and they are waving palm branches before him," Wendel said. "It’s a remembering of that and the beginning of his passion and death."

At Prince of Peace, the congregation also will start the service outside of the church.

"(We will have) the palm branches and then we will have the reading of the Gospel that recalls Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. And then we will have a processional leading into the church," Wendel said.

The Blessing of the Palms, commonly done in the Catholic and Episcopal churches, varies from church to church, but most portray the same basic message.

"(We) bless palm branches in remembrance of Jesus’ welcome when he came into Jerusalem," Dailey said. "The other thing that is interesting and a major part of the worship on Sunday is that, after we have that celebratory welcome, by the time we get to the Gospel reading in the service then our focus changes to the cross. So on Palm Sunday you are actually getting his triumphal entry and a focus on his death on the cross."