HOSANNA

signifies as much as Save now . The Jews call their feast of Tabernacles, Hosanna Rabba , i. e. the great Hosanna; the origin of that word is, because on that day they prayed for the salvation and forgivene of all the sins of the people. Therefore they used the word Hosanna in all their prayers; which implies, Save, I pray , according to Buxtorf; but Anthony Nebris sensis observes after Rabbi Elias, that the Jews call the willow branches, which they carry at the feast, Hosanna, because they sing Hosanna, shaking them everywhere. And Grotius observes, that the feasts of the Jews did not only signify their going out of Egypt, the memory of which they celebrated, but also the expectation of the Me ias : and that still on the day when they carry those branches, they wished to celebrate that feast at the coming of the Me ias ; from whence he concludes, that the people carrying those branches before our Saviour , showed their joy, acknowledging him to be the Me ias .