St. Clair Shores — Lent brings many traditions for Catholics, from ashes on one’s forehead for Ash Wednesday, to weekly Stations of the Cross, to the Friday evening fish fry.

Yet another tradition countless Catholics identify with Lent is the distribution of palm branches at the beginning of Holy Week, on Palm Sunday — symbolizing the celebration of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem.

After the procession, the branches might become curious objects to occupy youngsters during the long reading of the Passion at Mass, or tied into small crosses after the liturgy, though inevitably, the palms will gather dust after being brought home, said Gene Fedeli, who recently joined St. Joan of Arc Parish in St. Clair Shores after moving from Illinois.

Fedeli, though, goes a step further when it comes to palm branches. Not only does he weave palms into a number of intricate designs and arrangements to celebrate the Church’s Lenten tradition, but he also gives workshops for those who want to learn the techniques.

“When you just take home a branch, it usually gets put away somewhere,” Fedeli said. “I want it to be something they can put out and be visible.”

 

Centuries of tradition

Palm weaving is a long-lasting European tradition found in many countries, but especially in Sicily, where the Palm Sunday liturgy is called “La Domenica Delle Palme,” and the palm weavers are called “parmaru” in Sicilian.

“The custom of blessing the branches has its origin to the triumph and entry of Christ,” Fedeli said, adding that the Sicilian tradition started with the many men who cut and wove palms for the Mass, due to the abundance of palms found in southern Italy.



Fedeli’s first experience with palm weaving began as a child, and his family attended an Italian Catholic church in Illinois. He remembers going downstairs to the church basement on Palm Sunday, where Sicilian men would weave elaborate crosses out of the palm branches.

“My father got a cross every year,” said Fedeli. But his own interest in the old tradition tapered off when he was a teenager.

But when he married his wife, Shirley, they became involved in bringing back Italian traditions in their area of Rockford, Ill., including participation in the Italian Folk Art Federation of America, the Greater Rockford Italian American Association (GRIAA) and the Ethnic Heritage Museum.

His wife, for instance, started a local Italian folk dance troupe with the local Italian Folk Art Federation.

“I went with her, and there was a palm weaving workshop going on,” Fedeli said. “I went and got hooked.”

Afterward, Fedeli encountered several others who practiced the art of palm weaving, including a Felician religious sister, and a Lithuanian man who showed Fideli several more patterns.

Fedeli continued perfecting the patterns he had learned, which include names like “the leaf,” “the bell (also called the ‘artichoke’ or ‘pinecone’),” “the ribbon” and “the cross,” and discovered how to craft palm arrangements for church sanctuaries, cemetery stone bouquets and even as Bible bookmarks.

In the early 1990s, Fedeli made it his annual Lenten mission to teach the lost tradition to others, and began providing workshops around Illinois and Wisconsin. Every Palm Sunday he made sure to be home at his parish of the Cathedral of St. Peter to decorate the church for the special liturgy.

 

New home, same traditions

When the Fedelis moved to Michigan last August, Gene Fedeli brought his palm weaving techniques and love of tradition with him.

Shortly after the move, he advertised his Lenten palm weaving workshops to local parishioners, and was amazed to see the spots fill up long before Lent even began.

“I don’t sell anything,” he said, pointing out that the Church prohibits the selling of blessed objects in any case. Even so, he offers the workshops pre-blessing, so that people can take the creative arrangements to Mass on Palm Sunday for the special blessing.

Fedeli also said he works without glue or tape — “I like to keep it to the pure-looking environment of weaving, as it happened back in those days” — but he will add ribbons or greenery if the occasion calls for it.

Fedeli finds it inspiring that so many people, old and young — including a local Girl Scout troop he will instruct — are excited about palm weaving.

“My mission is so that this tradition carries on,” he said. “You’re making something happen that they can take home and keep in the house for a whole year as a sacramental.”

Palm weaving

• Gene Fedeli will give palm weaving demonstrations open to everyone April 13 (Palm Sunday) at St. Joan of Arc Parish, 22412 Overlake St., St. Clair Shores, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Fellowship and Youth Center.

• To learn more, visit www.palmweaving.net. To register in advance for Lent 2015 palm weaving workshops, email Gene Fedeli at [email protected].