Short Stuff: Watch Night

Watch Night has been observed on New Year’s Eve by African-American Methodists in the US since 1862, to mark the passage of the Emancipation Act. But this religious holiday goes back even farther in history, with even more layers of meaning. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 0:39Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the short stuff and happy new year to you. This is short stuff with the happy new year edition.

• 0:47Speaker 02

  That's right. I believe this is coming out on New Year's Day. So I guess, I mean, that's still happy new year.

• 0:53Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Happy 2025 to you, Chuck.

• 0:56Speaker 02

  Yeah. And to you and to Jerry.

• 0:59Josh Clark?

  Yeah. So it's appropriate that we are talking about watch night tonight because it is a longstanding tradition in the African American community, specifically the African American Methodist community. That every New Year's Eve, they typically hold a service starting maybe around 7:00 PM, maybe 10:00 PM and that it traditionally ends just after midnight after the new year. And the reason that it's so deeply rooted in the African American community in the United States is because there was the, what's considered the first watch night in this tradition came on December 31st, 1862.

• 1:42Josh Clark?

  The next day, Abraham Lincoln's executive order known as the Emancipation Proclamation would come into effect.

• 1:50Speaker 02

  That's right. At the stroke of midnight, bringing in that new year was a very special time, obviously in America. And it was called Freedom Eve for that reason as well, but also watch night because you're, you're, you know, you're watching that clock ticking. Towards freedom. When they gathered on that first watch night, there were a lot of churches who got together, obviously still legally enslaved people. And they waited. It's a pretty amazing tradition. Beyond that, it celebrates community, it celebrates faith, obviously, and perseverance. There's a description from the African American Museum that says, "Many congregants across

• 2:33Speaker 02

  the nation bow in prayer minutes before the midnight hour as they sing out, 'Watchman, watchman, please tell me the hour of the night.' In return, the minister will reply, 'It is three minutes to midnight. It is one minute before the new year. It is now midnight. Freedom has come.'"

• 2:49Josh Clark?

  Yeah, pretty neat tradition, huh?

• 2:51Speaker 02

  It's amazing.

• 2:52Josh Clark?

  I say we take an early ad break and come back and talk a little more about this tradition.

• 2:57Speaker 02

  All right, let's do it.

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• 3:45Josh Clark?

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• 4:51Josh Clark?

  So Chuck, this is very much associated with, again, the African-American, specifically Methodist, community. One of the other traditions is that on New Year's Day, they'll have an amazing meal, usually of Southern cuisine like hop and john. Of course. Potato salad, which is more German than Southern. Cornbread, that's a big one. And it just sounds as delicious as can be. And a lot of people say like, okay, yes, watch night, the first one ever was December 31st, 1862. But what a lot of people don't understand is that watch night was already a tradition in the Methodist denomination. So the enslaved Africans who got together for this first watch night were actually doing two things.

• 5:36Josh Clark?

  They were observing that traditional Methodist watch night service. But this one was extra special because of the emancipation proclamation coming into effect the next day.

• 5:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it kind of took on a double meaning at that point. Interestingly, it goes back to the Moravians, who I know we've talked about more than once on this show over the years.

• 5:57Josh Clark?

  That doesn't sound right.

• 6:00Speaker 02

  The Moravians, and it would be the Czech Republic now, way back in 1733, John Wesley was the founder of the Methodists, got it from the Moravians, brought the watch night vigil along to his denomination in about 1740. But these, they would hold once a month on full moons. They would have a service, I believe the first one was in, in the United States at least, was in 1770 in Philadelphia at Old St. George's Church. And they continue to this day as covenant renewal services. So, you know, it's a bit different, obviously, than the meaning it would have later on with the Emancipation Proclamation, but the double meaning is still held true and dear.

• 6:46Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and the original watch night, and still today, one of the big threads to it, or the point to it, is to get Methodists to reflect on just how well they're living their life. I think the Snopes put it in a way that if you basically die tomorrow, where are you going to go, essentially? And that, I guess, is a pretty good thing to reflect on every, every four weeks.

• 7:10Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 7:10Josh Clark?

  Because a lot of, a lot of stuff can happen in four weeks, you know?

• 7:14Speaker 02

  I was doing good last month, this month, not so much.

• 7:17Josh Clark?

  Right. But yeah, that 1862 watch night just changed everything so much that people don't even associate it with that original version, that covenant renewal service any longer. They just associate it with it, the freedom from slavery. And of course, the Emancipation Proclamation didn't just, like, immediately free slaves. It did on paper, legally, as far as the US federal government was concerned, all enslaved people were free as of January 1st, 1863. But the United States, the Union, was at war with the Confederacy, and the Confederacy wasn't exactly observing new federal laws, especially ones that freed the enslaved people in the South.

• 8:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, they weren't like, okay, we'll comply, sounds good.

• 8:04Josh Clark?

  No, it just did not go like that. But just the, the gravity of what had just happened, this executive order proclaimed by Lincoln, which apparently first came in September 22nd, 1862. He basically said, hey, everybody get ready for it because on January 1st of next year, all enslaved people are going to be free. He said that, "All persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." And there was probably no sweeter words for enslaved people to hear coming out of Abraham Lincoln's mouth at the time.

• 8:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. And then Lincoln kinda grinned and said, "Man, just wait till you see the statue they're gonna build of me."

• 8:50Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's gonna be boss.

• 8:52Speaker 02

  Like, "People are gonna love me. This is gonna be so great."

• 8:54Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:55Speaker 02

  And for great reason. These days, the services can vary, kinda depending on the congregation. Sometimes, like you said, they'll start a little earlier in the evening and maybe end at like 10 o'clock. So you can still go out and, you know, celebrate New Year's however you want. Sometimes that is New Year's for you and you take it all the way to midnight. Depending on the church, they might really emphasize the emancipation proclamation aspect of it. Sometimes they might do that at all. It kinda just depends on where you're going because it does, it is a night that very much has two distinct meanings.

• 9:28Josh Clark?

  Yeah. For those congregants whose services end at 10, they're very well-known to hop in a cab and put on their big oversized Nivea hat and say, "Get me to Times Square, stat."

• 9:43Speaker 02

  That's one tradition I've never had any interest in doing.

• 9:47Josh Clark?

  Me either.

• 9:48Speaker 02

  Zero.

• 9:48Josh Clark?

  That sounds so terrible. I mean, of course, the, the legend associated with it, which apparently is quite true, is like, if you have to pee, TS for you because you have to stay in the same spot that you arrived in and if you leave, you cannot come back in. So if you want to stay there until midnight, buddy, you better be able to hold your pee for like six hours.

• 10:08Speaker 02

  You know people are peeing in things, right there next to you.

• 10:11Josh Clark?

  Yeah. You know, if you look over, somebody's zoned out and they have like a look of relief across their face, they're peeing themselves right then.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. Why's that guy drinking yellow Gatorade?

• 10:23Josh Clark?

  Brody.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:25Josh Clark?

  Short stuff is out. Happy New Year, everybody.

• 10:31Speaker 06

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