Why do blacks have new years service that's called watch service?

Answer 1

During slavery, men and women would watched for the New Year to come because Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which claimed that January 1st of the next year, slavery would be completely abolished. It has become a tradition for many African Americans and over the years it kept the name "watch" service. We watch the old year go out and the new one come in. Thanking God for his many blessings and the completion of a year. We watch the new year come in and prepare for God's many more blessings to come.