The Memorial is supposed to be held in Nisan 14, jewish calendar. That day is April 19, 2008. Why is the Memorial being held this coming Saturday March, 22? Does anybody know?
What is wrong with the Memorial date this year?
by Cindi_67 29 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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garybuss
The Society prints their own calendars, so they can pick any date they happen to like. Their excuse for missing it every year is listed on the WT CD, just search "memorial date".
The real reason the wrong date is used is:
1. Always treat the Governing Body as if they are never wrong:
2. The Governing Body wants this date for the memorial meeting;
3. If the Governing Body is ever wrong, see rule #1.The Watchtower 1977 June 15 pp. 383-384 Questions From Readers
I understood that the Memorial celebration was always on the evening of a full moon. But in 1977 the Memorial was on April 3, and my calendar gave April 4 for the full moon. Why the difference?
Often the celebration of the Lord's Evening Meal and the full moon do coincide, but not always. There may, for example, be a day's difference, depending on where you live and the calendar used.
To see why this is so you need to understand the basic method presently used by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses in establishing the date for the annual Memorial celebration.
It was on the 14th of the Jewish month Nisan, the date of the Passover, that Jesus directed his followers to commemorate his death. (Luke 22:14-20) Appropriately, the date for the Memorial celebration is arrived at as the Jews back then determined the date for the Passover. They began the month of Nisan when they could first see the new moon in the spring nearest the equinox. Passover came fourteen days later.?Isa. 66:23; Ex. 12:2, 6.
Jehovah's Witnesses now follow this ancient pattern in determining the Memorial date. Please note that the first thing that needs to be established is when the new moon nearest the spring equinox (about March 21) will be visible in Jerusalem. This is not the astronomical new-moon time listed on a calendar or astronomical table. Why? Because the first thin sliver of the new moon is not visible until eighteen to thirty hours after the moment of astronomical new moon.
Let us take 1977 as an example. In determining the matter months beforehand so as to inform the congregations earth wide, the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses had to calculate when the new moon would become visible in Jerusalem. From the astronomical standpoint the instant of new moon was at 20:33 (8:33 p.m.) Jerusalem clock time on March 19, 1977. Of course, that new moon was not then visible nor would it be for many hours. But could the first sliver of the new moon be seen the next evening about sunset? Because of various involved factors it seemed unlikely that the moon could be sighted in the rather bright sky west of Jerusalem about sunset on March 20, 1977. Consequently, the Governing Body settled on March 21, 1977, as the time when, with assurance, the new moon would be in position to be seen from Jerusalem about sunset. Nisan 14 would thus commence at sunset on April 3. That is when Jehovah's Witnesses held the Lord's Evening Meal. What about the full moon that month? When was it?
Astronomical tables list the full moon as occurring on April 4 at 04:09 (4:09 a.m.), Greenwich (England) Mean Time. But at that same moment if you live in another time zone obviously your clock would show a different time. For instance, Stockholm (Sweden) and Rome (Italy) are in the next time zone to the east of Greenwich. Hence, for them the moment of full moon occurred on April 4 at 05:09 (5:09 a.m.). New York (U.S.A.) and Lima (Peru), though, are five time zones to the west of Greenwich, so for them the full moon was at 23:09 (11:09 p.m.) on April 3, 1977. Because of this variation according to time zones some 1977 local calendars indicated that the full moon occurred on April 4 and others said April 3.
In any case, the basic point to appreciate is that the date for the celebration of the Lord's Evening Meal is determined by the new moon (visible in Jerusalem), not the full moon. Nonetheless, the Memorial falls fourteen days after the appearance of the new moon. Thus it always occurs about the time of the full moon. It is good to know this in case some of Jehovah's Witnesses are cut off from contact with the Governing Body and do not know what date for Memorial has been determined. In that situation, if they observed the Memorial on the evening of the calendar date for the full moon after the spring equinox, they would likely be celebrating it on the same date as the rest of their brothers or at least very close to it. [end quote] -
mrsjones5
I have no idea but isn't Easter on the same day?
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bite me
this year Easer Sunday is March 23.
I just did a websearch,
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Scully
Even in Jerusalem, the full moon falls on Friday, March 22.
My guess as to why the GB decided that The Memorial™ should be on Saturday, March 23: So they can f*ck up yet another Saturday night for the average JW.
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bite me
On that same page, this is interesting too.
http://www.timeanddate.com/news/holidays/early-easter-2008.html
I wonder when the memorial will fall on at this time?
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Hope4Others
I guess the GB knows better than the Jew's
lol
hope
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blondie
Why Passover is in April in 2008.
When Is / Are The Date / Dates Of Pesach / Passover In 2008?
Pesach / Passover in 2008 will commence just after the end of Shabbat/Sabbath in the evening on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 and will last eight days (seven days for most Reform Jews, some Conservative Jews, and Jews in Israel), concluding either just after sunset or just after nightfall (depending on the authoritative rabbinical opinion one follows; nightfall is defined in Jewish law as being "the end of sunset", and occurs anytime from 20 minutes to 1 hour after sunset, depending on one's geographic latitude) on Sunday evening April 27th, 2008, or in the Hebrew calendar, from 15 Nissan 5768 to 22 Nissan 5768. For those who celebrate Pesach / Passover for 7 days (as just mentioned, most Reform Jews, some Conservative Jews, and Jews in Israel), Pesach / Passover in 2008 will commence just after the end of Shabbat/Sabbath in the evening on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 and will last seven days, concluding just after the end of Shabbat/Sabbath in the evening on Saturday, April 26th, 2008, or in the Hebrew calendar, from 15 Nissan 5768 to 21 Nissan 5768. In fact, in the Hebrew calendar, Passover always begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan for those who celebrate Passover for 7 days or for 8 days and always ends on the 21st day of Nissan for those who celebrate Passover for 7 days, and always ends on the 22nd day of Nissan for those who celebrate Passover for 8 days. However, in the Gregorian calendar which comprises the January to December months of the year, Passover begins and ends on different days each year. Why? (I had to ask) Well, I asked, so here comes the answer: the Hebrew calendar is primarily a lunar calendar, meaning the months are determined by the new moon that occurs when the first sliver of the moon appears following the complete darkness of the moon, and the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar based upon the Earth's rotation around the sun. Since there are 12.4 lunar months in every solar year, this means that a 12-month lunar calendar will lose about 11 days off the solar calendar every year. Since the Passover date is a fixed date in the Hebrew calendar then this means that the Passover date would occur earlier and earlier in the Springtime in the solar year until it would occur in the Wintertime, then in Autumn, then in Summer, and then back to Spring, and so on. To make up for this 'drift' in the Passover date through the solar months of the solar year, an extra month was periodically added to the Hebrew calendar so that the Passover date would drift back about 11 days each year for about two or three years, then jump forward by about a month's worth of days (29 or 30 days). To help solve this problem, Rabbi Hillel II in 358 or 359 C.E. used astronomical and mathematical calculations to align the lunar year with the solar year over a 19-year cycle. To achieve this, Hillel II standardized the length of each of the 12 lunar months, making them either 29 or 30 days so that the length of the 12 lunar months could be aligned with the length of each of the 12 solar months. Additionally, over this 19-year cycle, a second month of "Adar" called "Adar II" was and is added in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of the cycle, meaning in those years the month of Adar is replaced with the months of Adar I and Adar II. The leap year for Adar is 30 days and in non-leap years, Adar has 29 days. Under Hillel II's lunisolar Hebrew calendar, the months are determined according to the new moon and the years are determined according to the sun. This means that the Passover date will change only slightly from year to year in the Gregorian or solar calendar, with the second month of Adar being periodically added to keep the Passover date in the Springtime. It is important to keep Passover in the Springtime because this is when the first Passover occurred and because Passover must be celebrated in the specific agricultural season of Springtime, which depends on the solar year and necessitates the Passover date adjustment. For a further explanation and to see examples of the Hebrew calendar months and years in tables, check out the Jewish Calendar Page In Our Passover / Pesach Website.
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NanaR
Since in the Catholic Church, the celebration of Easter (Easter Vigil) begins at sundown on March 22, and the JW Memorial is held after sundown on March 22, the dates of Easter (celebration of the resurrection) and the JW celebration of the Lord's Evening Meal fall on the same date exactly this year.
This is particularly significant for me, with my Catholic baptism occuring this Saturday (not quite 41 years after my JW baptism).
Pax,
Ruth
