This is a Christian/Catholic phrase praising God, and I remember hearing it said a lot during high school. I always wondered where it came from. And today I found out!
Hosanna derives from a Greek translation of the Hebrew "ho'she'ana," meaning, "save us, please" (hoshea=save, na=please). Ho'she'ana is a phrase that Jews say in the liturgy for Sukkot, the harvest festival, when we ask God to please send us rain in the winter months. But when it got over to the Greek, it became a phrase of praise rather than the original supplication. Interestingly enough, the shaking of palms on Easter also comes from Sukkot, where you shake the lulav branch during services. The Easter customs were based on a Greek conflation of the major holidays!
Of course, now I feel somewhat silly, because all of this is explained in the Jewish Encyclopedia here. Why do I only look these things up after I learn about them in class??
Monday, October 5, 2009
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