I have a Palm Sunday branch from 3 years ago. What should I do with it?

[AwesomeHumbleJaybee]

I have a palm branch from Palm Sunday 3 years ago I am keeping in a drawer at home. I know that normally, they’re burnt down and used for the Ashes on Ash Wednesday. I don’t remember particularly as to why I kept it, but I don’t believe that it wouldn’t be appropriate to throw away as it’s considered blessed. What would the most appropriate thing for me to do with it?

 

[Agnus-Dei]

Save it until next palm Sunday and add it to the burning.
Easy.
Dominus vobiscum

 

[F_Marturana]

Must parishes will accept them prior to Ash Wednesday.

My parish always lets us know to not wait until Tuesday, because then the ash wouldn’t have sufficient time to cool.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

As others have said, churches collect these in the weeks before Ash Wednesday and burn them to make ashes.
If you don’t want to wait till then, it is okay to either burn it or bury it, and put its remains someplace where people don’t normally walk or play (e.g. your backyard flower garden is okay, a sports field is not okay).

Back in the day before churches started collecting the old palms, my mother would always burn ours in the yard in a coffee can and pour the ashes out.

 

[bluerose]

My husband and I usually take our palm branches home and display them around our crucifix. Then, the following year, usually on Ash Wednesday after we attend the services, he takes the dried palm branches and crumbles them and walks around the perimeter of our property (we live in a rural area) and scatters them as he prays for protection of our home and family. It was something he came up with on his own.

 

[AwesomeHumbleJaybee]

Thanks for the responses.

 

[27lw]

My husband and I usually take our palm branches home and display them around our crucifix. Then, the following year, usually on Ash Wednesday after we attend the services, he takes the dried palm branches and crumbles them and walks around the perimeter of our property (we live in a rural area) and scatters them as he prays for protection of our home and family. It was something he came up with on his own.

Not to pick on you, but technically with blessed objects we are supposed to dispose of them by burning or burying.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I would argue, with nothing to back it up except common sense applied to Catholicism, that a palm that is totally dried up, so that it would shatter if it were crushed, has ceased to be a sacramental. I would crush it into small pieces and scatter it in a far corner of the garden or yard, returning it to the elements.