Watch Night, or Freedom's Eve, calls on us to reflect on nation's history of slavery

When I was a little kid, I guess I really didn’t understand the coming of the new year or, for that matter, New Year’s Day.

It seemed odd that, just a week after Christmas, here came another holiday when we didn’t have to go to school. My parents were in charge of holidays, so I just went on with the business of being a kid and trying to stay out of trouble.

One of the big things I didn’t get about New Year’s Day was why we didn’t get another batch of gifts? Hey, when Christmas came the previous week, Santa unloaded his sleigh at everybody’s house. So why didn’t New Year’s Claus do the same thing? I was raised heathen, so I didn’t understand this stuff.

Only later did it dawn on me that no New Year’s Day Claus existed. The day wasn’t much more than a time to sit back – quietly if the previous evening had been raucous – maybe watch the Tournament of Roses parade in glorious black and white on TV and maybe watch a football game later.

I remember one year I was complaining about it to an aunt and uncle we were visiting, mostly lamenting the lack of gifts. Turns out that was the year Ford’s infamous Edsel had debuted. The local Edsel dealer was giving away a free model of the car to anyone who came in and test-drove the real thing.

I mentioned that I wished I could have one of those. My father had no intention of buying an Edsel, let alone test-driving one. So my uncle went back to the dealer, did another test drive and gave me the model car he received. I still have it. My uncle never did buy an Edsel.

As an adult, I learned that some religious traditions included a Watch Night service on Dec. 31. The idea was to watch and pray as the old year died and a new one took its place. I took my wife and the kids to one, just to see what it was like.

As it happened, the service lasted less than an hour, after which the few of us who showed up adjourned to the parsonage for refreshments. None of us understood any deeper meaning.

Actually, Watch Night, also known as Freedom’s Eve, is rooted in African-American history. On Dec. 31, 1862, enslaved and freed blacks gathered to wait and see whether President Abraham Lincoln would sign the Emancipation Proclamation into law. Today, Watch Night is a time to reflect on slavery and freedom, to pray and to celebrate liberation.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Watch Night tradition also can be traced to 18^th century Moravian churches where worshipers gathered to reflect on the year just passed and to contemplate the next 12 months. Again, these gatherings happened on Dec. 31.

Several members of our church formed an anti-racism study group nearly two years ago to try to educate our white selves about the realities of institutional racism. We have learned much, but much more remains to be understood.

This just might be a good time to think about celebrations such as Watch Night because the meaning is greater than a lot of us realize.

Freedom is a precious thing, and we ought to thank God for it on Watch Night and every night of the year.

Jim Ketchum is a retired Times Herald copy editor. Contact him at jeketchum1@comcast.net.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Watch Night, or Freedom's Eve, at time to reflect on slavery's history