By Kelley Kepler
Catholic Herald
The business of palms for next Sunday's procession
SUPERIOR --Palm Sunday, April 13, (also known as Passion Sunday) is the first day of Holy Week. During Mass parishes will distribute palm fronds or crosses made of palm to their congregations.
Christians remember the crowd of cheering followers that waved palm leaves in the air as Jesus made his triumphant arrival in Jerusalem. They also remember the cross on which Jesus died less than a week later after many of the would-be followers shouted for his execution.
Most are familiar with the story of Palm Sunday, but what about the tradition of getting palms at Mass? How many know where their palms come from?
That is where Jim Malnar, the manager at Petrolles Religious Goods in Duluth, Minn., enters the picture. During this time of year, Malnar's thoughts revolve around palms and Easter goods.
This year the store had 27 typed pages of standing orders, totaling about 94,000 palm fronds. "The biggest church gets 3,000 palms; the littlest gets 15," Malnar said. No order is too small because, "the little churches are important too," he said.
Petrolles serves most of the parishes in the Superior diocese and other churches in Wisconsin, Minnesota, upper Michigan and Ontario, Canada. Though the bulk of his customers are Catholic churches, Malnar also sells to churches of other Christian denominations.
Malnar, a Catholic who attends St. Mary Parish in Duluth, orders fronds and decorative palm fans from a landscaping company in Texas. Though this company mainly performs large-scale projects, such as landscaping the banks of freeways, selling palms is also a significant part of its business.
The palms fronds come in packages of 100 and are shipped from Texas to Minneapolis in refrigerated semitrailers. They are then sent directly to the churches via UPS. A number of palms are also shipped to Petrolles, where Malnar splits up the packages for smaller churches that need less than 100 palms.
When it comes to palms, quality is a top concern for Malnar.
He noted that Petrolles switched palm companies a few years ago. "We used to get them in here about a month before Palm Sunday, and by then they were all dried out. Now the palms are much fresher. People commented right away that they were much nicer."
"The palms are good this year," Malnar said. According to the new palm company, there haven't been any droughts or fires, and the palms look nice this year because they have plenty of moisture.
Yet he always encourages customers to check their palms as soon as they get them, just to verify that all the palms are there and in good condition. "The palm company will pay Second Day Air to send new ones," he said. "They just need enough time."
Selling palms "is a project," that begins at the start of January, Malnar said. "You've got to keep on it, and it takes a little bit of practice." Though the busiest months for most stores are around Christmas, "it's Easter that counts in this business," Malnar said.
After parishes distribute the palms on Palm Sunday, most people keep the palms as a symbol of their faith. The palms are later collected before Lent of the following year and burned to provide ashes for Ash Wednesday services.
Malnar finds this to be a meaningful tradition and said most of his customers burn their own palms for ashes. However, he does sell ashes for the parishes that find it easier to buy ashes rather than make their own. They are cheap, he said. A small, matchbox sized bag of ashes costs $3.50 and can mark the foreheads of 100 people.
Petrolles was founded over fifty years ago by Duluth residents Billy and Antoinette Petrolle. Malnar started working at the store in 1987 and eventually became the manager. He bought the store after the Petrolles' son-in-law who owned it had a stroke. Later, Malnar sold Petrolles to a couple from Richfield, Minn., and continues to manage the store.
"One nice thing about this business is that you get to be friends with the people, and what better people to be friends with," he said.
"Petrolles has been here for a long time, and they built the business from the bottom up. I worked with them for a while and they were the experts for me. I learned from them the little things you can't just walk in and know. I've been here long enough to know who needs what."
Sandy Aijala, who has worked for two years as a secretary at the Hurley, Montreal, Pence and Saxon parish cluster, said her parishes order their palms from Petrolles.
"They're so good. ... I can just call Jim over there, and he usually knows off-hand what I'm looking for," she said. She mentioned that Petrolles delivers goods free every other month and that Malnar often calls to check if the parishes need anything. "He must keep a good file system," she said.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2003