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Short Stuff: Watch Night · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff and a Happy
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: New Year to you. This is Short Stuff with the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Happy New Year edition. It's right.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I believe this is coming out on New Year's Day,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: so I guess I mean that's still Happy New Year.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Happy twenty five to you, Chuck, yeah, and to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: you and to Jerry. Yeah. So it's appropriate that we
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: are talking about watch Night tonight because it is a
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  Speaker 1: long standing tradition in the African American community, specifically the
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  Speaker 1: African American Methodist community that every New Year's Eve they
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  Speaker 1: typically hold a service starting maybe around seven pm, maybe
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  Speaker 1: ten pm, and that it traditionally ends just after midnight
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  Speaker 1: after the New Year. And the reason that it's so
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  Speaker 1: deeply rooted in the African American community in the United
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  Speaker 1: States is because there was the what's considered the first
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  Speaker 1: watch Night in this tradition, came on December thirty first,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two. The next day Abraham Lincoln's executive order
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  Speaker 1: known as the Emancipation Proclamation would come into effect.
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  Speaker 2: That's right at the stroke of midnight, bringing in that
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  Speaker 2: new year. Was a very special time obviously in America,
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  Speaker 2: and it was called Freedom Eve for that reason as well.
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  Speaker 2: But also watch night because you're you know, you're watching
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  Speaker 2: that clock ticking towards freedom. When they gathered them that
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  Speaker 2: first watch night, there were a lot of churches who
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  Speaker 2: got together obviously still legally enslaved people, and they waited.
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  Speaker 2: It's a pretty amazing tradition. You know. Beyond that, it
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  Speaker 2: celebrates community, It celebrates faith obviously, and perseverance. There's a
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  Speaker 2: description from the African American Museum that says, many congregants
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  Speaker 2: across the nation bow and prayer me it's before the
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  Speaker 2: midnight hour, as they sing out, watchman, watchman, please tell
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  Speaker 2: me the hour of the night. In return, the minister
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  Speaker 2: will reply, it is three minutes to midnight. It is
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  Speaker 2: one minute before the new year. It is now midnight.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Freedom has come.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty neat tradition. That's amazing. I say we take
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: it early a break and come back and talk a
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: little more about this tradition.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: All right, let's do it.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: So, Chuck. This is very much associated with again the
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  Speaker 1: African American, specifically Methodist community. One of the other traditions
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: is that on New Year's Day, they'll have an amazing meal,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: usually of Southern cuisine like Hopin' John. Of course, potato salad,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: which is more German than Southern cornbread. That's a big one,
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  Speaker 1: and it just sounds as delicious as can be. And
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people say, like, Okay, yes, watch Night.
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  Speaker 1: The first one ever was December thirty first, eighteen sixty two.
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  Speaker 1: But what a lot of people don't understand is that
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: watch Night was already a tradition in the Methodist denomination.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: So the enslaved Africans who got together for this first
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: watch Night were actually doing two things. They were observing
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: that traditional Methodist watch Night service, but this one was
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  Speaker 1: extra special because of the Emancipation Proclamation coming into effect
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  Speaker 1: the next day.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it kind of took on a double meaning
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: at that point. Interestingly, it goes back to the Moravians,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: who I know we've talked about more than once on
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  Speaker 2: this show over the years.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: That doesn't sound right.
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  Speaker 2: The Moravians and I would be the Czech Republic now.
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  Speaker 2: Way back in seventeen thirty three, John Wesley was the
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  Speaker 2: founder of the Methodists, got it from the Moravians, brought
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: the watch Night vigil along to his denomination in about
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  Speaker 2: seventeen forty. But these they would hold once a month
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  Speaker 2: on full moons, they would have a service. I believe
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  Speaker 2: the first one was in in the United States at
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  Speaker 2: least was in seventeen seventy in Philadelphia at Old Saint
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  Speaker 2: George's Church, and they continue to this day as Covenant
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  Speaker 2: of Renewal Services. So, you know, it's a bit different
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  Speaker 2: obviously than the meaning it would have later on with
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  Speaker 2: the Emancipation Proclamation, but the double meaning is still held
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  Speaker 2: true and dear.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, in the original Watch Night and still today. One
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  Speaker 1: of the big threads to it, or the point to it,
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  Speaker 1: is to get Methodists to reflect on just how well
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: they're living their life. I think the Snopes put it
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  Speaker 1: in a way that if you basically die tomorrow, yeah,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: where are you going to go? Essentially? And then, I
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  Speaker 1: guess is a pretty good thing to reflect on every
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: four weeks because a lot of stuff can happen in
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  Speaker 1: four weeks.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I was doing good last month, this month
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  Speaker 2: not so.
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  Speaker 1: Much, right, But yeah, that eighteen sixty two Watch Night
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  Speaker 1: just changed everything so much that people don't even associate
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  Speaker 1: it with that original version, that Covenant Renewal Service any longer.
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  Speaker 1: They just associated with it the freedom from slavery, and
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  Speaker 1: of course the emancipation proclamation didn't just like immediately free slaves.
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  Speaker 1: It did on paper. Legally, as far as the US
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  Speaker 1: federal government was concerned, all enslaved people were free as
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  Speaker 1: of January first, eighteen sixty three. But the United States,
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  Speaker 1: the Union was at war with the Confederacy, and the
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  Speaker 1: Confederacy wasn't exactly observing new federal laws, especially ones that
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: freed the enslaved people in the South.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they weren't like, okay, well, comply it sounds good.
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  Speaker 1: No, it just did not go like that. But just
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  Speaker 1: the gravity of what had just happened. This executive order
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  Speaker 1: proclaimed by Lincoln, which apparently first came in September twenty second,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two, he basically said, hey, everybody, get ready
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  Speaker 1: for it, because on January first of next year, all
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  Speaker 1: enslaved people are going to be free. He said that
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  Speaker 1: all persons held as slaves within any state or designated
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  Speaker 1: part of a state, the people whereof shall then be
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  Speaker 1: in rebellion against the United States, shall be then thenceforward
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  Speaker 1: and forever free. And there's probably no sweeter words for
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  Speaker 1: enslaved people to hear coming out of Abraham Lincoln's mouth
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  Speaker 1: at the time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then Lincoln kind of grinned and said, man,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: just wait that you see the statue they're going to
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  Speaker 2: build up me. Yeah, it's going to be bossed like,
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  Speaker 2: people are going to love me. This is going to
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  Speaker 2: be so great. Yeah, and for great reason. These days,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: the services can vary kind of depending on the congregation. Sometimes,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: like you said, they'll start a little earlier in the
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: evening and maybe end at like ten o'clock, so you
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: can still go out and you know, celebrate New Years
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: however you want. Sometimes that is New Year's for you,
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  Speaker 2: and you take it all the way to midnight. Depending
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  Speaker 2: on the church, they might really emphasize the Emancipation Proclamation
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  Speaker 2: aspect of it. Sometimes they might do that at all.
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  Speaker 2: It kind of just depends on where you're going, because
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  Speaker 2: it does. It is a night that very much has
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  Speaker 2: two distinct meanings.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, for those congregants whose services end at ten, they're
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  Speaker 1: very well known to hop in a cab and put
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: on their big oversized Nivia hat and to get me
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  Speaker 1: to Times Square stat.
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  Speaker 2: That's one tradition. I've never had any interest in doing
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  Speaker 2: me either.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: That sounds so terrible. I mean, of course, the legend
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  Speaker 1: associated with it, which apparently is quite true. It's like
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: if you have to pe ts for you because you
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: have to stay in the same spot that you arrived
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  Speaker 1: in and if you leave, you cannot come back in.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: So if you want to stay there until midnight, buddy,
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  Speaker 1: you better be able to hold your pee for like
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  Speaker 1: six hours.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: You know, people are being in things.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Right Yeah. You know if you look over somebody zoned
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: out and they have like a look of relief across
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: their face, they're peeing themselves right then?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, why is that God drinking yellow gatorade?
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Crony? Yeah, short stuff is app Happy New Year, everybody.
• 8:22
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• 8:25
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• 8:29
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