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The palm branch, or palm frond, is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm (Phoenix) was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt represented immortality. In Judaism, the lulav, a closed of the date palm is part of the festival of Sukkot. A palm branch was awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece, and a palm frond or the tree itself is one of the most common attributes of Victory personified in ancient Rome.
In Christianity, the palm branch is associated with Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, celebrated on Palm Sunday, when the Gospel of John says of the citizens, "they took palm branches and went out to meet Him" (12:13 HCSB). Additionally, the palm has meaning in Christian iconography, representing victory, i.e. the victory of the spirit over the flesh (Revelation 7:9).
Since a victory signals an end to a conflict or competition, the palm developed into a symbol of peace, a meaning it can have in Islam, where it is often associated with Paradise.
The palm appears on several flags or seals representing countries or other places, with the coconut palm associated with the tropics.
The palm was a symbol of Phoenicia and appeared on Punic coins. In ancient Greek, the word for palm, phoinix, was thought to be related to the ethnonym.
In Archaic Greece, the palm tree was a sacred sign of Apollo, who had been born under a palm on the island of Delos.Delian Apollo birth is described in the Homeric Hymns to Delian Apollo. The palm thus became an icon of the Delian League. In recognition of the alliance, Cimon erected a bronze statue of a palm tree at Delphi as part of a victory monument commemorating the Battle of the Eurymedon (469/466 BC). In addition to representing the victorious League, the bronze palm (phoinix) was a visual pun on the defeated Phoenician fleet. From 400 BC onward, a palm branch was awarded to the victor in athletic contests, and the practice was brought to Rome around 293 BC.
The palm became so closely associated with victory in ancient Roman culture that the Latin word palma could be used as a metonym for "victory", and was a sign of any kind of victory. A lawyer who won his case in the Roman forum would decorate his front door with palm leaves. The palm branch or tree became a regular attribute of the goddess Victory, and when Julius Caesar secured his rise to sole power with a victory at Pharsalus, a palm tree was supposed to have sprung up miraculously at the Temple of Nike, the Greek counterpart of Victory, in Tralles, later known as Caesarea, in Asia Minor. The toga palmata was a toga ornamented with a palm motif; it was worn to celebrate a Roman triumph only by those who had a previous triumph. The toga itself was the garment of the civilian at peace, and was worn by the triumphator to mark his laying down of arms and the cessation of war. The use of the palm in this setting indicates how the original meaning of "victory" shaded into "peace" as the aftermath of victory.
Coins issued under Constantine I, the first Christian emperor, and his successors continue to display the traditional iconography of Victory, but often combined with Christian symbolism such as . The Roman senator Symmachus, who tried to preserve Rome's religious traditions under Christian domination, is pictured on an ivory diptych bearing a palm branch in an allegorical triumph over death.
During the Roman Empire, the date palm represented Judaea and its fecundity to both Romans and Jews. Roman sources praise the date as the produce of the province. The date palm was a frequent image for Judaea on Imperial coinage, most notably on the Iudaea Capta series, when the typical tropaion is replaced by the palm. The palm appears also on at least one Hasmonean coin and on coinage issued in 38–39 AD by Herod Antipas. Palm ornaments are found also on Jewish ossuaries.
In 1965, Judean date palm seeds dated at around 2000 years old were recovered during excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada in Israel. In 2005, some of the seeds were planted. One grew and has been nicknamed "Methuselah".
Origen calls the palm (In Joan, XXXI) the symbol of victory in that war waged by the spirit against the flesh. In this sense it was especially applicable to martyrs, the victors par excellence over the spiritual foes of mankind; hence the frequent occurrence in the Acts of the Martyrs of such expressions as "he received the palm of martyrdom." On 10 April 1688 it was decided by the Congregation of Rites that the palm when found depicted on catacomb tombs was to be regarded as a proof that a martyr had been interred there. Subsequently, this opinion was acknowledged by Mabillon, Muratori, Benedict XIV and others to be untenable; further investigation showed that the palm was represented not only on tombs of the post-persecution era, but even on tombs of those who did not practice Christianity.
The general significance of the palm on early Christian monuments is slightly modified according to its association with other symbols (e.g., with the monogram of Christ, the Ichthys (Fish), or the Good Shepherd). On some later monuments the palm was represented merely as an ornament separating two scenes. Palms also represented heaven, evidenced by ancient art often depicting Jesus in heaven among palms.
In the Middle Ages, to the Holy Land would bring back palms for deposit at their home churches. Crusades would carry or wear an image of one, seen today in the Catholic Order of the Holy Sepulchre, which still awards a Palm of Jerusalem decoration. In addition, the Custody of the Holy Land, courtesy of the Catholic Church, bestows the Jerusalem Pilgrim's Cross on Catholic pilgrims to the city.
===Gallery of martyrs bearing palms===
The first muezzin climbed palm trees to call the faithful to prayer, from which the minaret developed. In the Quran, Mary is said to have given birth to Jesus under a date palm.
In northern Sudan, the doum palm is the symbol of endurance (doum), particularly of the Muslim saint who gave his name to Wad Hamid. The palm also appears on several coins from Islamic states, for example the 1 Tunisian dinar issue honoring the Food and Agriculture Organization from 1970, and several Iraqi coins of the 1970s like the 5 fils.
Today, the palm, especially the coconut palm, is a symbol of a tropical island paradise. Palms appear on the flags and seals of several places where they are native, including those of Malta, Haiti, Paraguay, Guam, Florida, Poland, Australia and South Carolina.
The palm branch symbol is included in MUFI: ⸙ (2E19, 'Palm Branch' in Unicode).
In Arabic language, the term Fog al-Nakhal (فوق النخل), which literally translates to " above the palm trees", is an idiom used to indicate euphoria, satisfaction or strong happiness.
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