I came across an odd remark concerning the booking of a JW convention in an article from Spokane.
Visit Spokane’s Cheryl Kilday: Meeting expectations
Since Cheryl Kilday returned to the Northwest 5 1/2 years ago, the Spokane Convention Center has been expanded, a 750-room hotel has opened across from it, and a number of smaller investments have added dining and shopping options in the city’s core.
All of the changes have added options or improved the pitch for Spokane for Kilday, who as the president and CEO of Visit Spokane heads up the organization tasked with bringing more people and events to town.
We took some time with Kilday during the quieter part of the convention calendar, while some of the year’s biggest events are still on the horizon.
The article continues to discuss the convention trade in Spokane and then says this in the interview:
Journal: What have been some of your biggest wins in terms of landing conventions over the last year or so?
Kilday: In 2015, we booked the Lions Clubs International, which is a really good and significant group for us. It’s the Canadian delegation, as well as the Western delegation of the Lions, so we’re really excited about that.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have booked for their Watchtower convention.
What they do is look at booking in the darkest weekend of the year, so they’ll be here the Fourth of July. They’ll fill the arena, and that will be later this year.
The Executive Women International booked last year. It’s a smaller group, but it’s a really important group. It really shows the support of our community for our own Executive Women International chapter.
This is what I am curious about:
What they do is look at booking in the darkest weekend of the year
Firstly, I am not sure about "darkest weekend of the year" because July 4th, 2016 is right after the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
However, July 4th is the date of the new moon that month. So, it is the darkest weekend of the month.
It is a strange thing for Kilday to say...does anyone know anything about odd and unusual ways of picking JW convention dates??? Do the powers that be in the WT still stick to some strange and wacky leftovers of lunar magic from the Woodworth days?