Amid the gunshots, fireworks, cries of “Happy New Year”, clinking glasses, and stolen kisses, the world welcomes the New Year in jubilant fashion. But we who are born again celebrate the transition into the New Year in quite a different manner. Some churches might gather together for games and social fellowship in a recreational manner that allows a peaceful celebration for the young at heart. Or, as in the recent years, many Christians have had to celebrate the New Year quietly in their homes privately and possibly virtually with friends and family. However there are some churches that celebrate with an annual “Watch Night” church service where members assemble before the midnight hour to pray in the New Year. This practice of praying in the New Year has been a tradition that is ongoing for several centuries.
History has it that this type of service began in the Methodist Church by its founder, John Wesley in the 1700s. The Watch Night services gave members of the Methodist Church godly ways in which to counter the traditional practice of celebrating the New Year through drunkenness, and wanton behavior that typifies excessive drinking. The service provided opportunity for believers to reflect, repent, and prepare in faith for the coming year, spiritually. John Wesley brought this practice with him when he traveled to the New World (America) in the 1700s, and it was practiced in the early Methodist churches.
The practice of a Watch Night prayer service in black churches is cemented with a monumental event in American history. The tradition of holding a Watch Night service in black churches every New Years Eve began on December 31, 1862. Many Black Americans assembled in their churches to pray through the night because on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Act signed by President Abraham Lincoln would go into effect—thus giving freedom to all people regardless of skin color. The Watch Night church service became a celebration of freedom and a victory in faith that remains current today.
The original reason to pray on New Years Eve took root in England, but it remains current today in the hearts of many American Christians. Reflection, repentance, preparation and freedom enveloped the faith of Christians and set the stage to overcome the world in victory. Modern Watch Night services today are meetings of worship and praise and/or communion with the ending order of the service being that of unified congregational prayer at the altar or within the pews right before the midnight hour. This tradition of praying in the New Year is steeped with history that spans two continents and marks tumultuous and ungodly times with victory that cultivates hope and continuous trust in Jesus Christ.
1 John 5:4
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (NKJV)
Neidra Crisp