Getting Ready for a New Year

A fact even I didn't know....

There has been an email around, I gather, that traces the tradition of a "Watch Night Service" on New Year's Eve to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 which ended slavery in the United States. According to the legend, African-Americans gathered on December 31, 1862 to await the announcement that the proclamation had actually become law. I also gather from the email that this tradition of New Year's Eve "Watch Night Services" has been an important part of the Black Church tradition.

All this came as interesting to me since my Moravian tradition has also had a strong tradition of a "Watch Night Service" of some type that has only really begun to change and wane in the last 10 -20 years. So, it came as no surprise, even though I didn't know all the facts, when this came from Snopes.com corrector of all kinds of legends- urban, historical, and otherwise...

Watch Night began with the Moravians, a small Christian denomination whose roots lie in what is the present-day Czech Republic. The first such service is believed to have been held in 1733 on the estates of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf in Herrnhut, Germany.

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, picked it up from the Moravians, incorporating a Watch Night vigil into the practices of his denomination... with the first such service in the United States taking place in 1770 at Old St. George's Church in Philadelphia.

These gatherings were a time for congregants to meditate on their state of grace... As the 13th chapter of Mark instructs: Watch therefore, for you do not know the hour when the master of the house will come.
--Snopes.com