By Bishop Durrell Watkins, D.Min.

April 2025 brings Hanamatsuri, also known as International Buddhist Day; the birthday of Jainism’s founder Lord Mahavira; the Jewish Passover; and for Christians, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter. Each of these traditions somehow involve trees. 

April 8 celebrates the birth of the Buddha. The Buddha became enlightened while sitting under a fig tree and meditating for 49 days. 

April 10 commemorates Mahavira becoming “all-knowing” after meditating at length under a Sala tree. 

April 12-20 is Passover, named for the angel of death passing over Jewish homes in Egypt that had been marked by lamb’s blood sprinkled with hyssop, a shrub. 

April 13 is Palm Sunday, celebrating Jesus’ pilgrimage to Jerusalem where he was greeted with cheers and the waving of palm branches. Good Friday is when Jesus is executed on a wooden cross and Easter is the surprise twist to that story. 

Buddha’s tree led to enlightenment, Mahavira’s to omniscience, the Israelites hyssop to survival. Palm branches celebrated Jesus while a wooden cross was meant to end his influence. Easter, then, is victory over the cross. 

April is when the trees tell our LGBTQ+ community that enlightenment, wisdom, resilience, and even renewed life are available to us. May we receive this message and be blessed by it.

Bishop Durrell Watkins, D.Min., is the Senior Minister of Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale and an Auxiliary Bishop for the Global Justice Institute. Sunshine Cathedral welcomes you to Palm Sunday worship on April 13 and Easter Sunday services on April 20.  SunshineCathedral.org