Matty, I didn't know that the Russians were responsible for the dumb clapping after the prayer. Last week after the public talk, the congregation did the usual clapping after the talk. Then the elder said that HE enjoyed the talk so much that we should all give the brother another round of applause. Minimus will only clap once.
If only you just wouldn't CLAP so hard....
by PopeOfEruke 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Matty
They do it after a regular meeting? Now that is crazy! I was only talking about District and Circuit conventions!
Nobody gets a round of applause after student talks do they? Well, in certain areas they clap your talk if it is your first one after joining the school. It's as if to say "Well done for joining the Ministry School".
If you have more than one school, sometimes you will hear clapping in the second school, which is a bit of a nuisance if it comes in the middle of somebody's talk in the main hall.
I think this practice is silly, because I'm sure it's nerve-racking enough to give your first talk without having a round of applause after it to embarrass you even further.
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Prisca
I can confirm what Matty said about clapping becoming more frequent after the Russian conventions in 93.
The Russians were a very emotional group of people, and they had a deep appreciation for "spiritual" things, so they were inclined to applaud virtually anything that was said from the platform. And not only was it frequent, it was soooo enthusiastic, something that has never been repeated in the Western world, I'm sure.
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In_between_days
LOL I was just talking about this exact same topic yesterday. I used to HATE the tempremental clapping that went on during assembelies. disturbing my naps!! I used to sleep the entire way through the assembellies, sitting in between my mother and father, I had to be crafty, so I used to cover one side of my face with my hand and the other side with my long hair. I got so good at it, I would position my face downwards at my bible so it looked like I was concentrating. I kept my hair long for this exact reason throughout my youth (it was also handy to hide my face out witnessing). Anyway, the claps would always make me jolt out of my forty winks, sending that bible flying - boy did I get glares from my parents then!!
Other times myself and my friends would begin clapping at innapropriate times, just to see who would join in. We always got the filthy looks from the other dubs.
My highlight from the assembellies was this one where the stadium was positioned right next to an outdoor volleyball centre and the volley boys (who the sisters had been not so tactfully perving on the entire 3 days) decided to drop their pants and moon the dubs, standing on a wall, that faced the grounds. The laughter that erupted from the dubs was enormous and the poor speaker had absolutely no idea what was so funny about his talk. He actually had to pause until the laughter died down. Did anyone go to that same assembly? I also heard that a Melbourne assembly was ambushed by a streaker!!
Ive gotten a bit sidetracked from the original theme of this thread sorry, but I have so many amusing assembely tales!!
As for clapping after prayers, they only used to do that in my area after the end of the assembly, except for this one time a member of the GB visited and gave a HALF HOUR LONG PRAYER I kid you not, it was unbelievable, the guy was just so old and feeble and everyone gave him thunderous applause afterwards, thinking it was the best celebrity appearance to ever hit Australia. Afterwards in the car though, a few dubs I was with whined about the traffic we had to get through because of the "Hold Up".
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Pleasuredome
i remember at last year's convention a friend of mine would continue to clap when everyone had stopped. childish, but very funny as it started to piss people off.