Watch Night Services

Watch Night Services

Called

Freedom’s Eve

Many of us who live or grew up in the Black communities in the United States have probably heard of “Watch Night Services,” the gathering of the faithful in church on New Year’s Eve. The service usually begins anywhere from7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and ends at midnight with the entrance of the New Year. Some folks come to church first, before going out to celebrate. For others, church is the only New Year’s Eve event. Like many others, I always assumed that Watch Night was a fairly standard Christian religious service, made a bit more Afro centric because that’s what happens when elements of Christianity become linked with the Black Church.

Still, it seemed that predominately White Christian churches did not include Watch Night services on their calendars, but focused instead on Christmas Eve programs. In fact, there were instances where clergy in mainline denominations wondered aloud about the propriety of linking religious services with a secular holiday like New Year’s Eve.

However, there is a reason for the importance of New Year’s Eve services in African American congregations. The Watch Night Services in the communities that we celebrate today can be traced back to gatherings on December 31, 1863 also known as “Freedom’s Eve.” On that night, Blacks came together in churches and private home all across the nation, anxiously awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law.

Then, at the stroke of midnight, it was January 1, 1864, and all slaves in the Confederate States were declared legally free. Despite that expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal Border States. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of African Americans, and fundamentally transformed the character of the war from a war for the Union into a war for freedom. Moreover, the proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union army and navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

When the news was received, there were prayers, shouts and songs of joy as people fell to their knees and thanked God. Black folks have gathered in churches annually on New Year’s Eve ever since, praising God for bringing us safely through another year of freedom.

It’s been 147 years since that first Freedom’s Eve “Watch Night Services” and many of us were never taught the African American history of Watch Night, but tradition still brings us together at this time every year to celebrate January 1^st was “African American Independence Day “or Freedom Day.