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28 Dec 04 - 09:52 AM (#1365893) Subject: BS: Watch Night From: Jerry Rasmussen For many people, New Year's Eve is a time for getting drunk. For other's it's a time to celebrate the good things of the passing year and to look forward with optomism to the promise of the New Year. For some, it's just another excuse for a party. In the black community, New Year's Eve has another meaning besides all of the above. In black churches across the country, December 31st is a time to come together to celebrate Watch Night. And, there's a history behind all of this. On December 31st, 1862 black Americans gathered in churches and homes awaiting the stroke of midnight. At midnight, the Emancipation Proclamation became law and brothers and sisters still in slavery were free. For awhile, that night was called Freedom's Eve. But, in more recent years it has been remembered as Watch Night. The church that we go to puts on an ambitious musical rememberance of that night, with spirituals of the period, and then traces the history of black Americans to the present through songs and dance. It's a very spiritual, moving experience, and I will never experience New Year's Eve in the same way as I have in the past. There are many things to celebrate on New Year's Eve. Some are trivial and hedonistic. Some are truly joyful and filled with promise. But, what could be more powerful than celebrating freedom from slavery? Jerry |
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28 Dec 04 - 10:22 AM (#1365913) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: gnu nOTHING. tHANKS. i DID NOT KNOW THAT. |
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28 Dec 04 - 10:33 AM (#1365915) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: Once Famous We do it every Passover. For 3000 years. |
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28 Dec 04 - 10:45 AM (#1365923) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: Jerry Rasmussen I appreciate and applaud that, Martin. Then I guess you could really understand the power of celebrating the release from slavery of blacks, too. Slavery is slavery. And freedom can never be taken for granted. Jerry |
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28 Dec 04 - 11:00 AM (#1365931) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: Arkie John Wesley began an annual covenant service as a process for believers to renew their covenant with God at least once a year. This service has been held in Methodist Churches on New Year's Eve or on the first Sunday in the new year. The service is in the Methodist Book of Worship. When it is held on New Year's Eve it is called a Watch Night Service. I have been a part of churches that held this service annually and others that did not observe it all. |
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28 Dec 04 - 11:30 AM (#1365948) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: Jerry Rasmussen Thanks for the information, Arkie: I was a founding member of a Methodist church back when I was a teenager, and got to know the young Pastor there. He loaned me seceravl books on Methodist beliefs, and I don't remember seeing any mention of Watch Night. We certainly didn't celebrate it at our church at that time. I suppose it's like everything else. Some do, some don't. Not all black churches celebrate Watch Night, and not all of them who do ackowledge the historic significance of it. Jerry |
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28 Dec 04 - 12:01 PM (#1365964) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: GUEST Watch Night type celebrations do seem to be hit and miss these days. I know of only one church in the Twin Cities that has the service anymore, though there could of course be others I'm not aware of. That service tries to tie the Watch Night thing in with Kwanzaa, in a bizarrely charismatic megachurch sort of way, according to an African American friend of mine who went to one of their services a couple years ago out of curiousity. Is that something new? Most of the black folks I know are either Baptist or non-religious, and don't celebrate Kwanzaa or Watch Night, despite there being a very large Juneteenth celebration in our community. I don't know that many black Pentecostals, as around my part of the woods, there aren't very many of them, and they tend to remain more self-segregated than the black Baptists do. The African Americans I am closest to aren't religious at all, but I know a lot of African American families as acquaintances who are church folk. But like I said, they are mostly Baptist. But it is odd that this get mentioned here, as I just had this conversation with my former neighbor last week, who I mention above. The church that celebrates Watch Night is just down the street from her & our old house, and is an African American Pentecostal church. Not one of those evangelical/fundamentalist sorts of black megachurches, because it is a very tiny church building. But it does seem to be trying to modernize and reinvent itself along that politically conservative, fundie evangelical line so many black churches are following these days in their effort to keep up with the white fundamentalist megachurch phenomenon. Life just keeps getting odder, the older I get. |
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28 Dec 04 - 12:48 PM (#1365996) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: GUEST Here is an article on Watch Night from The Witness Magazine website. They are an Anglican/Episcopal affiliated group, but close enough, eh? |
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28 Dec 04 - 01:00 PM (#1366007) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: Jerry Rasmussen I guess Watch Night means different things to different people. Most prefer Dick Clark's Watch Night. :-) Jerry |
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28 Dec 04 - 01:18 PM (#1366030) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: GUEST Groan. Please Jerry, ANYTHING but Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years! It's damaging enough we have to tolerate him/it just to watch the ball drop! We like to watch it these days with the sound turned off, and either with music of our own making, or a good CD. |
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28 Dec 04 - 01:52 PM (#1366057) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: PoppaGator For those of us sick of Dick "Dorian Grey" Clark, maybe PBS will start airing Guy Lombardo reruns. They're doing well with Lawrence Welk, after all; maybe a nostalgic New Year's Eve with Guy and his Royal Canadians would draw the same audience *plus* many more of us who were kids the first time around and who aren't nearly as put off by the classic rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" as by Welk's "champagne music." Drifting BACK to the main subject: Isn't it possible that some of the African-American congregations that participated in the early Freedom Eves might have been Methodist churches, and that's where and how the concepts of Freedom Eve and Watch Night may have merged together? The link to The Witness magazine mentioned the custom of serving/eating black-eyed peas on New Year's for luck. This is a southern custom, not exclusive to black folks, and still very popular in New Orleans. Here, we combine cabbage (for prosperity -- luck with money) with the blackeyes, which are for general good luck. It's a very common New Year's meal served not only in homes but also as a one-day-only "special" in all kinds of restaurants, from modest neighborhood places to the finest white-linen eateries -- usually accompanied by ham. I don't know that the ham has any special good-luck significance; it just rounds out the meal with a compatible meat course. (The blackeyed peas are normally cooked down with a bit of pork "seasoning meat," but an additional slice of ham has become customary -- especially at high-end restaurants with a need to justify their prices!) |
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28 Dec 04 - 02:43 PM (#1366090) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: Megan L Watchnight for those in the church of Scotland is Christmas eve although some churches when i was small also had one on hogmanay. |
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28 Dec 04 - 02:57 PM (#1366101) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: GUEST Black eye peas always means Hoppin John to me, which is a Scottish dish traditionally served on New Years Eve, I believe. But that shouldn't be surprising, considering the strong ties in the south between the Scots, slaves, and the influences of Scots church music on African American gospel music as a result of their close proximity to one another (while keeping segregated "discreet" distance between the communities at the same time). We now make our Hoppin John with a nice veggie Italian sausage, along with organic rainbow chard for the greens, and bake a nice spagetti squash to go with it instead of the traditional rutabagas (also a southern tradition according to my mother, who wasn't from the South, nor knew anyone who was, but loved rutabagas while we all hated them). We also have it with cranberries and pumpkin pie. It's quite a tasty, stick to your ribs sort of New Years meal. |
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28 Dec 04 - 08:18 PM (#1366381) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: Once Famous Dick Clark won't be there this year as he is recovering from I believe a stroke. Regis Philbin is filling in. |
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29 Dec 04 - 02:13 AM (#1366544) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: GUEST In the background - will be a lad whom Dick Clark has mentored these past ten years - Shawn Parr (stage name - a friend would never reveal his given name .... although given the current makeup of SouthWest America .... returning to his roots could be a Bonanza) |
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29 Dec 04 - 06:55 AM (#1366644) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: wysiwyg New Year's Eve services hold historical significance for blacks On slave-owning plantations, Dec. 31 not only ended the calendar year but also that year's accounting period. To slave owners who were businessmen as well, December was the time to review the books and decide whether to increase, decrease or maintain the number of slaves kept. Aware that New Year's Day might bring the break-up of their families, slaves gathered the evening before to pray their families remained intact — or to say goodbye. Then on Dec. 31, 1862, later also known as "Freedom's Eve," New Year's Eve took on even greater meaning. Slaves and free blacks knew the Emancipation Proclamation was to take effect Jan. 1, 1863, so they gathered in homes and churches to pray and offer thanks for deliverance. SOURCE |
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29 Dec 04 - 07:33 AM (#1366651) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: GUEST Dear Megan L, I've posted something about The Rumour page. regards, Woutera |
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31 Dec 04 - 07:02 AM (#1367953) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: wysiwyg refresh |
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10 Jan 05 - 01:59 PM (#1376008) Subject: RE: BS: Watch Night From: Megan L thanks Woutera |