Art Form: Palm frond braiding

Location(s): Farmington Hills (Oakland County)

Frederick Wenson

Frederick Wenson with two of his braided palm fronds

Frederick "Fritz" Wenson (1929-2016) was born in Detroit. In the Wenson family, palm braiding has developed into a treasured tradition. In the 1930s, Katherine Marie Hunzicker Wenson was asked by her church, the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit, to braid palm fronds for each of the 10 to 12 celebrants of the Palm Sunday mass. She recruited her son Frederick ("Fritz"), then 13, to help. Until then, Kathrine Wenson had made small items braided from palm such as crosses and boxes for children to take as gifts to teachers and nuns at school. "My mom was never taught what she did with palms," Fritz remarked. "When she was in grade school the nuns taught a class on how to make little crosses with palms but nothing like what mom developed herself." (1)

Palm-frond braiding is a widespread Christian custom associated with Palm Sunday, the holiday that marks the beginning of Holy Week. In many cultures, worshipers take blessed palm fronds home from the Palm Sunday service. Sometimes the fronds are braided or twisted into crosses, amulets, and other objects and given to family and friends who keep them until the next Palm Sunday.

Fritz's mother created large, elaborate floral-like bouquets from palm fronds. With Fritz she braided palm fronds for the archbishop of the greater Detroit Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, who carried them in the Palm Sunday procession. It soon became a family tradition for mother and son to compete in providing two separate palms from which the archbishop would choose. When Fritz's was finally chosen, he knew he had achieved greater mastery of the art. After arthritis restricted his mother's activity, Fritz continued the family tradition, eventually teaching his children. He and his son, Tony, who was most interested in braiding the palms, continued the intergenerational rivalry to see whose palm will be chosen by the archbishop. What started as a simple kindness toward the clergy by his mother evolved to a deeply personal symbol of the Wenson family's commitment to their church and to each other.

(1) Wenson, Fritz. Interview with LuAnne G. Kozma, Farmington Hills, Michigan. 9 April 1995.