text: Xie Daoyun's comparison of snow and willow catkins is a famous line of poetry and is used to refer to precocious young female poets.
  Europe
  The flowering shoots of pussy willow are used both in Europe and America for spring religious decoration on Palm Sunday, as a replacement for palm branches, which do not grow that far north.
  Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox; Ruthenian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, Bavarian, and Austrian Roman Catholics; Finnish and Baltic Lutherans and Orthodox; and various other Eastern European peoples carry pussy willows on Palm Sunday instead of palm branches. This custom has continued to this day among Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Romanian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Ruthenian Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic, Kashubian Catholic and Polish Catholic émigrés to North America. Sometimes, on Palm Sunday they will bless both palms and pussy willows in church. The branches will often be preserved throughout the year in the family's icon corner.
  Pussy willow also plays a prominent role in Polish Dyngus Day (Easter Monday) observances, continued also among Polish-Americans, especially in the Buffalo, New York, area.
  Middle East
  In Greater Iran it may be part of the decoration on the Haft-Seen table during the new year celebration of Nowruz on the first day of spring, and its distilled flower is used in traditional medicine.