Palm substitutes used for rites

QUITO, Ecuador -- Some Ecuadorians were waving corn stalks and branches of ornamental plants instead of traditional palm fronds and the woven Crosses made from them on Palm Sunday this year. The change of greenery was part of a campaign to save the endangered wax palm and two bird species: the endangered golden-plumed parakeet and the yellow-eared parrot, which might actually be extinct. The birds depend on the palm for nesting and refuge.

"We want people to know about the problem and be part of the solution," said Adriana Lara of Birds & Conservation, an Ecuadorian environmental group that encouraged the use of reeds or other greenery for traditional Palm Sunday ornaments.

Msgr. Rafael Escobar of La Concepcion Parish in northern Quito joined the campaign last year and noted in the parish's Holy Week fliers that the branches blessed on Palm Sunday did not have to be palms. "It seemed like a rational position to take," he said.

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