Anyone whose been to a circuit assembly or district convention over the past 5 years knows how the Society has gone absolutely ape-$#!+ crazy over the word "symposium".
There's a symposium every morning...every afternoon....every multi-talk unit is introduced as a "symposium"...the KM articles hyping the assemblies ramble on about how we can look forward with great enthusiasm to all the symposiums....at lunchtime, the talk is all about "oh what a great symposium"...Symposium this, symposium that....
Anyways, I'm currently reading "The Jews in the Time of Jesus" by Stephen Wylen, an entry-level discussion of Jewish belief in the 2nd temple period concentrating on, not surprisingly, the Jews in the time of Jesus.
In one chapter he is comparing Jewish ritual meals to Christian ritual meals, and how the Seder morphed into the Eucharist.
He talks how the seder was done in the first century, and compares it to a typical Hellenistic (Greek) banquet.
Here's what I found amusing:
"At the Hellenistic banquet the participants sat on sofas around a low table, dining at leisure. Meanwhile, they discussed a prepared topic. Each guest was expected to make a clever speech on the chosen topic and then offer a toast, which introduced a round of wine drinking. A banquet of this type was called a symposium. The seder evolved as a symposium on the topic of the Exodus from Egypt..."
In other words....
Symposiums have a...
wait for it....
wait for it....
PAGAN ORIGIN!
ROFLMAO!
That's it! No more assemblies! They're as pagan as a Christmas tree.