On Saturday, March 30, the night of the sacred celebration, the attendance was 10,650,158!

In Mexico, the Memorial attendance was 1,230,099, an 8-percent increase over the year before. This means that 1 out of every 67 inhabitants of Mexico was present for that celebration. And Brazil, with 302,367 publishers, had 897,739 persons in attendance, 106,813 more than the previous year. No wonder that, on the average, one new congregation had to be formed each day during the service year in Brazil, and 21 new circuits and two new districts began to function on September 1, 1991. The Memorial celebration in the Philippines brought joy to the brothers as they welcomed 332,830 to their places of meeting. This is three times their peak number of publishers. Eastern Europe also experienced a good increase in Memorial attenders. The Soviet Union reports 108,633 in attendance, 43 percent more than last year! Poland had 200,422 persons fill the Kingdom Halls and other facilities on that sacred night.

Violence marked the night of the Memorial in many townships in South Africa, causing many interested persons to stay home because of fear of being molested while traveling to or from the site of the Memorial. To give an example of the difficulties that some individuals faced, consider the situation of the Montebello Congregation in the rurals of Natal. This is a small congregation of ten publishers who have just built and dedicated their own Kingdom Hall. On Saturday morning, factional fighting broke out in that area. An elder in a neighboring congregation was assigned to give the talk. As he and his wife approached the village of Montebello, a local man who knew this brother asked him: “Where are you going?” He explained that they were going to the Kingdom Hall, where he would give the Memorial talk. The man then warned: “No, you must not go there because that is where people are killing one another.”

Sure enough, as the brother got near the hall, he counted ten dead bodies, victims of factional fighting. In spite of these dangers, 16 attended the Memorial. The hall was the only place in the area that had lighting. All the homes were in darkness out of fear of attracting troublemakers. After the Memorial the brothers and interested persons all slept at the home of a brother near the hall. The next morning, after they returned home, the factional fighting broke out again.

[Picture on page 5]

Last year, 10,650,158 people earth wide attended the annual celebration of the Lord’s Evening Meal