Passion Sunday
![Crucifix veiled for Passiontide in the Parish Church of St. Martin, Tannheim, Baden Württemberg, Germany.](/Images/godic/202501/21/StMartin43-532631.JPG")
![The altar cross veiled in crimson for Passiontide at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Memphis, Tennessee](/Images/godic/202501/21/Altar_cross_enshrouded_for_Lent2632.jpg")
Passion Sunday is either the fifth or sixth Sunday of Lent.
Until 1959, the fifth Sunday of Lent was known as Passion Sunday. It marked the beginning of a two-week-long period known as Passiontide, which is still observed by various denominations in Protestantism and by some traditionalist Catholics. In 1960, Pope John XXIII's Code of Rubrics changed the name for that Sunday to "First Sunday of the Passion" bringing the name into harmony with the name that Pope Pius XII gave, five years earlier, to the sixth Sunday of Lent, "Second Sunday of the Passion or Palm Sunday".