Seeing in the New Year in worship — begun by Methodists in the 1740s, and in Black churches remembering December 31, 1862, Freedom's Eve, the night before the Emancipation Proclamation. A watchnight service (also called Watchnight Mass) is a late-night Christian church service. In many different Christian traditions, such as those of Moravians, Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Baptists, Adventists and Reformed Christians, watchnight services are held late on New Year's Eve, which is the seventh day of Christmastide. This provides the opportunity for Christians to review the year that has passed and make confession, and then prepare for the year ahead by praying and resolving. The services often include singing, praying, exhorting, preaching, and Holy Communion. Watchnight services can take the form of Watchnight Covenant Renewal Services, Watchnight Vespers services, Watchnight Vigil services, or Watchnight Masses. As Watchnight services bring in the New Year by glorifying God, they are seen by many Christians as being preferable to "drunken revelry" in popular cultural celebrations that are commonplace in some localities. In addition to Christian denominational practices, the ethnic customs of Koreans and African Americans have a strong tradition of New Year's Eve watchnight services. Wiki link Dates computed from the Revised Common Lectionary's calendar; denominations differ in the details. Text: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).