“They took palm branches”
They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting: 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!' (John 12:13 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A shout of pure praise, like 'hallelujah.'
The cultural key
Hebrew hoshia-na means 'Save, please!', a cry for rescue, not applause. It comes from Psalm 118:25–26 ('Save us, we pray, O LORD… Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD'), part of the Hallel psalms every pilgrim sang at the festivals, waving branches as they came. By Jesus' day the plea had shaded into acclamation, but the petition still sounds inside it, and pairing it with 'Son of David' makes it politically explosive. Only John specifies palms. The palm was the national victory emblem: carried at the Maccabean rededication and liberation celebrations, stamped on Judea's independence coinage (and later on Bar Kokhba's rebel coins). Waving palms at a Passover crowd was maximal political theater, and John's crowd adds the title out loud: 'even the King of Israel.'
Recovered meaning
'Save us now, Son of David!': a crowd applying the festival's liturgy of rescue to a specific man riding a king's mount. The authorities heard the claim precisely, which is why they demanded he silence it.