{"id":1528,"date":"2014-12-17T15:04:37","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T20:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/?p=1528"},"modified":"2015-01-16T11:28:47","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T16:28:47","slug":"watch-night-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/?p=1528","title":{"rendered":"Watch Night Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"field-label\">Wed, 1862-12-31 *On this date in 1862 the first Watch Night Services were celebrated in Back communities in America.<\/div>\n<p>The Watch Night service can be traced back to gatherings also known as \u201cFreedom\u2019s Eve.\u201d 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<p>Blacks have gathered in churches annually on New Year\u2019s Eve ever since, praising God for bringing us safely through another year. It\u2019s been over a century since the first Freedom\u2019s Eve and tradition still brings us together at this time every year to celebrate \u201chow we got over.\u201d This celebration takes many African American decendants of slaves into a new year with praise and worship. The service usually begins anywhere from 7 p.m. To 10 p.m. And 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\u2019s Eve event.<\/p>\n<p>There have been instances where clergy in mainline denominations questioned the propriety of linking religious services with a secular holiday like New Year\u2019s Eve. However, there is a reason for the importance of New Year\u2019s Eve services in the Black experience in America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wed, 1862-12-31 *On this date in 1862 the first Watch Night Services were celebrated in Back communities in America. The Watch Night service can be traced back to gatherings also known as \u201cFreedom\u2019s Eve.\u201d On that night, Black slaves and free blacks came together in churches and private homes all across the nation awaiting news [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1530,"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528\/revisions\/1530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watereebaptistud.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}