Hosanna!

Today is the vernal equinox, which means that it’s the first day of spring.

It’s also Palm Sunday, commemorating Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of his last week in mortality.

Palm Sunday is, I’m afraid, to some extent a reminder of the fickleness of crowds.  Most of those who covered the path before him with palm fronds and their own cloaks and who shouted “Hosanna!” and welcomed him as their messianic king were nowhere to be found when he was arrested, just four days later, and hauled before Pilate.  Some of them, indeed, may have been among the crowd yelling “Crucify him!”

That’s not to say, however, that Palm Sunday is irrelevant to today’s temple dedication.  Those who participated in the dedicatory services joined in the traditional “Hosanna Shout,” the origin of which is strongly connected with this particular day in the Christian calendar and which has been a part, so far as I’m aware, of the dedication of every Latter-day Saint temple since the first, in Kirtland, Ohio, which was dedicated to the Lord 180 years ago this coming (Easter) Sunday.

And the first day of spring represents the return of light and life after the darkness and relative death of winter.  It’s a fitting day for us to have dedicated the 150th operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for temples, too, represent the victory of life and light over death and darkness.