Let’s Welcome in 2021
But first, let’s revisit a few of our tried-and-true traditions
There’s something about tradition that makes everything make sense. Sometimes in times of uncertainty, you just need to lean into it.
Watch Night, for one, might take on a different meaning this year as Black Americans really take in the enormity of what has happened in a year earmarked by Kobe Bryant’s death, George Floyd’s murder, Covid-19’s horrific slayage in our community, and Breonna Taylor’s tragedy.
It’s a Baptist tradition, but many others might take up the mantle given the fight we’ve all put in to deal with racism in 2020. Sometimes it’s time to sit still, contemplate the best path forward, and, as they say in church, watch.
“Many Black Christians go to Watch Night services, which today commemorate the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. While millions of enslaved Americans gathered to kneel and pray on plantations in advance of their emancipation, free Black Americans in the North gathered at churches in solidarity and reflection, a tradition that has persisted for over 150 years.”
