I just want to share my experience of Palaspas in Northern California.
It so happened that I was around the Latino community yesterday and I saw people selling palaspas . It was my first time to see palaspas for a very long time .
The Latino palaspas is a small version of the Philippine palaspas . They don’t use coconut leaves/fronds . Palm leaves/ frond din pero small version and the design is different with weaving here and there . It doesn’t make loud noise and instead of a paper flower , they decorate it with small plastic religious figurines ( a crucified Christ , Virgin Mary etc ) . One piece is worth $ 10-15 .
I went to a church sa downtown kaso there’s no holy water , they covered yung mga lalagyan and they were decorating the altar in preparation for Palm Sunday .
So it forced me to go sa Palm Sunday mismo to have it blessed .
Today I went to the same church and no one was selling palaspas outside the church .
Tinanong ako kung saan ko nabili yung palaspas .
As it turned out ... ako lang ang may dalang authentic palaspas .
What they did was ...yung frond ng palm plant ...tinanggal ng isa isa yung leaf ... tapos binigyan yung mga tao ng tig 1-4 pieces each to simulate a palaspas .
Anyway ... naka tingin sa akin yung pari kasi ako lang ang may dalang authentic palaspas eh I have 2 pa .. each with praying hands na gold ( it’s plastic pero gold ang kulay na shiny ) sa middle part ... sa bottom part yung isa with crucified Christ, yung isa Virgin Mary .
Ala lang . I find it amusing .
My explanation ... kasi tayo namang pinoy we don’t go shopping when it’s Holy Week .. it’s either you go to a beach or stay sa city and attend the Holy Week masses . So maybe that’s the reason people don’t know where to buy a palaspas.
The church that I went eh originally eh Irish Catholic church na nasa downtown mismo ... pero ngayon majority ng pumupunta eh pinoy . Dati pinoy ang pari doon but now it’s a white guy . It’s a big old church and it was full .
May isang pinoy ... ang dala raw palm frond ... mukang directly hinugot lang nya sa small palm tree . No decoration whatsoever . No weaving ..no nothing.
Side note :
When it comes to religion, highly charged ang pamilya namin .
My mom is Iglesia ni Cristo , my sister a hardcore Jesus Miracle Crusade member , my brother a Mormon .
So yung palaspas na binili ko ... special yun . All of us haven’t seen a palaspas for a very long time .