Tonight on Jesus Memorial of Nissan 14, did you have any partakers? Attendance good? Experiences? Do tell!?

We are in Florida and of all nights tonight it decided to rain.[no big beautiful moon].The hall wasn't to standing room because we had the 8pm meeting .We share with another congregation and early meeting time is theirs now. The Brothers and Sisters were magazine cover beautiful in a righteous way.We were talking so and laughing that we didn't notice the brother trying to shush us .That never happens with the Over Seer here felt like naughty kids] *~* Ha ha

He from Bethel, naturally the talk was so riveting It was over in a flash it seemed.I couldn't see if we had any partakers are not.There was a few damp eyes before the meeting ,we lost a sister to death she was 84 and Quite the saucy old girl and looked great. She'll be greatly missed ,and her welcome back, will be a large affair she is dearly loved.The Over Seer's Special talk is at 10 am tomorrow so I better go sleep some.

Love you all and hope you were able to attend and had a very good time and if your banned I said a prayer for you and send

you much appreciation and love.K

No Partakers our publishers are 110, attendance was 199 beautiful southern california full moon clear skies and we watched the sun set. We attended 2 memorials one cause my hubby is hurt needed his scooter, and cant walk from the extra service he did, so went to our daughter at 7 and I went to ours at 8:30 cause I just had to know how all the hard work everyone enjoyed would bear fruitful interest. Dont know how many at first left right before letter was read. My girls found it so courious that the same scriptures were used at both memorials they are 9 and 10 so just getting the gest of it. First hall exceeded 200 standing room only. We passed three memorials from the first to the second. Brothers doing traffic control dead give away using city faucilities and KH . 18 min apart from first to second KH two sites in between. The second hall had a brother we invited from Bethel and Ive told the story on two other questions so wont repeat here but he was a very good speaker works in the art dept shared some tid bits in service Sat.

My congregation along with 3 others in the area rented a large hall in a very public area that receives ongoing attention based on its famous television contest that is held there (and currently ongoing..i think we all know which one i'm talking about). The 4 congs that attended totalled 450 publishers...we had 1600 people in attendance..only 1/4th of the attendants were JWs..it made me cry to hear that. THe brother from Bethel who came to give our talk explained the 'bread and wine' thing better than i'd ever heard it explained. Everyone from my hall was crying because we all put in a lot of effort inviting people this year and NO KIDDING all the acquaintances we invited pretty much showed up!!!

I didn't see anyone partake, but I heard stories about some visitors partaking...

We had GREAT attendance! Our congregation met with 6 others (7 total) at the assembly hall. 1400 in attendance, including the spanish congregations meeting upstairs (I think). Our congregation counted 240+ alone! So exciting! I didn't personally see anyone partake, but I know that one of the brothers who gave the prayer before passing the bread has claimed to be one of the anointed for as long as I've known him, so I'm sure he did. We had one baby start screaming during the first prayer out of no where. One of the attendants, had to go over and ask them politely to take the baby out of the auditorium so that we could hear the prayer. Instead, the mother gave HIM the baby. Talk about awkward! But the baby eventually did calm down.

The sister that I went with had one fellow employee from work that came, along with a bible study and her bible studies brother. They said they really enjoyed it. It was nice to be able to show them around the assembly hall too. A sister did some gorgeous murals around the lunch room areas and it was nice to get to show our visitors.

As we left the hall, the sister I came with said she'd received a text message that said that 36 persons attended the Chinese memorial in Chicago. 19 of which were visitors! So encouraging! Also, saw the full moon. It was a little hazy at first because of some cloud cover, but after the clouds passed it was bright and beautiful.

On the way home, the employee who'd come with us asked if they pass collection plates. We explained that we didn't and that it was only voluntary contributions and that the boxes were were located near the back of the hall so that each could make their contribution as it was resolved in their heart to do (2 Corinthians 9:7). She was impressed with that. She agreed to a Bible Study this morning (Sunday) which we're going to be starting momentarily. It was an awesome night! I could barely get to sleep at the end of it :) Hope your night went well too!

No partakers, full parking lot and about a 1/3 more in attendance than usual which meant overspill into the library. Great talk and emblems passed without a hitch.

Overall, a truly memorable and accurate Nisan 14, reckoned the same way as the 1st century Jewish calendar, 14 days after the *visible* new moon over Jerusalem.

The full moon was clear and beautiful.

Edit: According to the Judaism 101 link which mama..paj provided, follow the "Nissan" link:

"The lunar month on the Jewish calendar begins when the first sliver of moon becomes visible after the dark of the moon. In ancient times, the new months used to be determined by observation. When people observed the new moon, they would notify the Sanhedrin. When the Sanhedrin heard testimony from two independent, reliable eyewitnesses that the new moon occurred on a certain date, they would declare the rosh chodesh (first of the month) and send out messengers to tell people when the month began."

This is how we calculate Nisan 14, from the *visible* new moon over Jerusalem.

The same webpage adds:

"In the fourth century, Hillel II established a fixed calendar based on mathematical and astronomical calculations."

We use the calculation taken from the first century, not a later 4th century calendar.

Exodus 12:6 "And it must continue under safeguard by you until the fourteenth day of this month, and the whole congregation of the assembly of Israel must slaughter it between the two evenings."

Jewish tradition presents the time period mentioned here as the time from noon (when the sun begins to decline) on until sundown, it appears that the correct meaning is that the first evening corresponds with the setting of the sun, and the second evening with the time when the sun's reflected light or afterglow end and darkness falls.

See Deuteronomy 16:6 and Psalm 104:19,20

This understanding was also that offered by the Spanish rabbi Aben-Ezra (1092-1167), as well as by the Samaritans and the Karaite Jews. It is the view presented by such scholars as Michaelis, Rosenmueller, Gesenius, Maurer, Kalisch, Knobel, and Keil.

It should be noted that Christians are not governed by any sacred or religious calendar specifying certain holy days or festivals.

Yes, there was one brother who partook of the emblems tonight. He's not from our Hall, but I've seen him on a few occasions.

Attendance was good, we had the second slot this year because we share with another congregation. Ours was at 9 p.m.

My children attended with me.....and my son who is in college attended the memorial in that city and took along 3 classmates. So, overall, it's been a great night.

Vot missed the bus where a student card gets you a free ride. So waited for the next one and arrived 10 minutes late. Had to change out of jeans and into formal wear, and decided that looking for the English congregation in the Assembly Hall would take too much time. Joined the Russian congregation instead.

Almost full hall that seats about 150 people. No partakers in the first 5 rows (all Vot could see without turning round) Altogether at least 7 meetings tonight- English, French, Vietnamese (translated), Chinese (translated- I think), Armenian and three Russian at our Assembly Hall.

Many interested ones, very up-building talk, very warm and appealing speaker.

Many photos. When Vot came out of the Hall, it was snowing, heavy cloud cover, the moon was not visible at all.

Due to the fact that the authorities renting out the cinema near Vot's hostel only last night "revoked" their permission to use it for the Memorial venue, many students who had accepted the invitation changed their minds because now it meant they had to travel 2 hours one-way by bus and metro (subway/underground) to the meeting, instead of a ten-minute walk. :-(

Hi, our congregation of 95 publishers had 225 in attendance at the Memorial. The library, lobby, and main hall were packed, there was SRO! The CO was here this week and gave the talk. I enjoyed it very much. After it was over, I found out my son was there, so that made it even nicer. :)

Our Hall is small....25 publishers plus their children. Tonight we had 68 in attendance with no partakers. Met some nice local people and some were encouraged to come on a permanent basis again.

Our talk let out about 2 hrs. ago. Nice talk, as usual. Full Hall. Attendance number was not announced. Had to take our 22 month old granddaughter. All she did was cry for me and want my bible. She was fairly quiet. No partakers in our hall. Special one day assembly next month. Special talk in two weeks at our hall. Looking forward to that. Did not notice the moon. Agape