Where will you ring in 2008?

As the New Year rolls around, will you be cutting a rug at the best party in town, or will you be prayerfully kneeling at a church altar?

That is a question whose answer will either be found amid the pages of New Year's Eve party planners or amid the pages of the Holy Bible as people decide how to bid farewell to 2007.

While many will be ringing in the new year in bars and restaurants, many more will be praying, singing and rendering testimonials of thanksgiving to God as part of Watch Night services. The service has become a tradition among residents in The T&D Region, particularly African-Americans.

"You watch the old year go out and the new year come in. It's supposed to be about turning over a new leaf, but I say take care of the one you've already got," says the Rev. Nathaniel McNeal, pastor of Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Norway. "As far as the service, I think it's just a coming together to remind ourselves that the new year is coming in and to decide what we want to do. We want to do better, but we give God thanks for bringing us through."

A centuries-old tradition originating in the ante-bellum South Carolina Lowcountry, Watch Night was celebrated by slaves on New Year's Eve, often lasting until dawn of the brand new year. It was the culmination of a week-long gathering that began on Christmas Eve when some planters allowed their slaves to celebrate with neighboring families and friends.

The special week came to an end with a New Year's Eve vigil that began early in the evening in a church or a praise house and featured songs, prayer and a "watchman." In the midst of the prayers and songs, the watchman would be asked what time it was, and he would then tell the congregation the time.

Following prayers, singing and testimonials, most parishioners at churches where Watch Night is celebrated are on their knees praying as the clock strikes midnight. Most will then congregate in fellowship halls for a joyful feast of love and unity.

"We're on our knees praying and witnessing a new year. We know the past. We've come through that. We're in the present and know there's a future. We don't know what the future holds, but we know God holds the future. We'll turn off the lights at 12 midnight, when everyone should be on their knees. Then the watchman, or whoever does the lights, will turn the lights back on a minute after 12," McNeal said. "We'll be thanking God we're still here."

The Rev. Eddie Williams, pastor of North Orangeburg United Methodist Church, said the purpose of Watch Night is twofold. While individuals give praise and honor to God as "living testimonies" to how he's safely brought them through the year, individuals also make commitments to get closer to God in the new year.

"That made service powerful to see how families come up to the altar together, but individually make their own personal vow. We've always moved from our closing prayer to a time of fellowship. It gives me a glimpse of the upper room situation. Before Jesus goes to the cross, he's in fellowship with his disciples. In every year, no one know who's going to leave from our circle," said Williams, whose congregation will join two other houses of worship, Edisto Fork United Methodist Church and Trinity United Methodist Church, for their own Watch Night Service.

"That fellowship is also symbolic of what a great fellowship it's going to be if we all live the life we're claiming to live and meet on the other side in heaven. When the new year comes in, folks are hugging, crying, smiling and happy, but that's just a prelude to what it will be like when we celebrate not for a new year, but for life eternal," Williams said.

The Rev. Paul Y. Thomas, pastor of New Beginning United Methodist Church in Norway, said the service indeed traces back to slavery, at a time when the slaves "got together because they were looking for the Promised Land, the time when they wouldn't be slaves anymore."

"That was their way of praising God and hoping he would lift them up out of the predicament they were in. That's why we sing, praise God, pray and give testimonies about how good God is. It may touch someone who hasn't found God yet," said Thomas, noting that Watch Night is a time when individuals "ask to have a new start in life so that things may be better than they were the year before."

The Rev. Henry Murdaugh, pastor of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Ulmer and St. Dorcas Baptist Church in North, said while Watch Night has become a hallowed tradition in African-American history, the service is also spiritually symbolic of an unchanging savior.

"In the Christian faith, the thing that gives us ... the steadfastness that we have in our belief ... in the change of year and change in general is that the lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and ... forevermore. That God does not change is the thing that gives us hope and confidence, and that has a lot of connection with the Lord Jesus Christ," Murdaugh said.

"His love, promises and power are the same although we may run into many changes otherwise. Our stability is in Christ," he said.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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