Date: Wed, 1862-12-31

*On This date in 1862 the first Watch Night Services were celebrated in Black communities in America.

The Watch Night service can be traced back to gatherings also known as “Freedom’s Eve.” On that night, Black slaves and free blacks came together in churches and private homes all across the nation awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law.  At the stroke of midnight, it was January 1, 1863; all slaves in the Confederate States were declared legally free. When the news was received, there were prayers, shouts and songs of joy as many people fell to their knees and thanked God.

Blacks have gathered in churches annually on New Year’s Eve ever since, praising God for bringing us safely through another year. It’s been over a century since the first Freedom’s Eve and tradition still brings us together at this time every year to celebrate “how we got over.” This celebration takes many African American descendants of slaves into a new year with praise and worship. The service usually begins anywhere from 7 p.m. To 10 p.m.. It ends at midnight with the entrance of the New Year. Some people come to church first, before going out to celebrate, for others, church is the only New Year’s Eve event.

There have been instances where clergy in mainline denominations questioned 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 the Black experience in America.

Reference:
The African American Desk Reference
Schomburg Center for research in Black Culture
Copyright 1999 The Stonesong Press Inc. and
The New York Public Library, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pub.
ISBN 0-471-23924-

UPDATED TUESDAY JANUARY 6TH, 2015

THE FOLLOWING NOTES ARE FROM WIKIPEDIA FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA

 The Confederate States of America (CSA or C.S.A.), commonly referred to as the Confederacy, was an unrecognized secessionist state existing from 1861–65. It was originally formed by seven slave states in the Lower South region of the United States whose regional economy was mostly dependent upon agriculture, particularly cotton, and a plantation system of production which in turn largely relied upon slave labor. Each had declared their secession from the United States following the November 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln on a platform which opposed expansion of slavery. The new nation was proclaimed in February 1861 before Lincoln took office in March, but was considered illegal by the U.S.. After war began in April, four states of the Upper South also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. The Confederacy later accepted Missouri and Kentucky as members, although neither officially declared secession nor were ever controlled by Confederate forces.
The United States (the Union) government rejected secession and considered the Confederacy illegal. The American Civil War began with the April 12, 1861 Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, a fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. By 1865, after very heavy fighting, largely on Confederate territory, CSA forces all surrendered and the Confederacy vanished. No foreign state officially recognized the Confederacy as an independent country, but Britain and France granted belligerent status. Although lacking a formal end, Jefferson Davis lamented that the Confederacy "disappeared" in 1865.

 

 

  In the Bible when God delivered the Hebrew Israelite slaves from bondage in Egypt, God instructed them to hold an annual celebration {Passover} for them to remember how He delivered, fed and kept them coming up out of slavery on their way to God's promised land to them.

Just as it was Christ, The Rock of Ages, who kept the enslaved Hebrew Israelites during 400 to 430 years {Genesis 15:13, Acts 7:6, Exodus 12:41, Galatians 3:17}  or so of slavery in a foreign land, then set them free and brought them to their promised land;

{REVIEW WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY #133 "THE ROCK OF AGES"}

It was Jesus Christ  

who kept the so called African, North and South American slaves for 430 years or so {Between 1450 & 1850 through 1865 when slavery stopped in the U.S. of America, then in 1888 slavery stopped across the Americas, South and Central.  These slave statistics are from news.bbc.co.uk.}.

Watch Night Church Service in many predominately African American Christian Churches, is a celebration of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, keeping, delivering, and setting captives free. It is a way to remember and honor our once enslaved ancesters for the horrific suffering, degradation, and abuse they endured while publicaly proclaiming,

JESUS CHRIST is "how we got over"!!!

God's Word, JESUS CHRIST, prevailed in America in 1863, then again in 1865, finalizing the deliverance of U.S. African American slaves and others who were enslaved at that time in the United States of America, bringing them out of slavery and starting the process of learning about and moving into, all the wonderful promises of God for living the "abundant life" that Jesus came to give us all. 

Psalm 78:1-7 NKJV

1/ Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2/ I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, 3/ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. 4/ We will not hide them from their children, telling  to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. 5/ For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; 6/ That the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, 7/ That they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;

LET'S ALL TAKE A PERSONAL ASSESSMENT OF OURSELVES AS WE PREPARE TO GO FORWARD IN THE NEW YEAR. 

REVIEW WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY #86"WHAT'S THE CONDITION OF YOUR GROUND" & #124 "FREED BY THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH-JESUS"