By Herb Frazier  |  Today at noon, the Charleston community will gather at Morris Brown AME Church to celebrate a moment in history when enslaved people anticipated freedom.

This special event at Morris Brown will be an homage to services first held on Dec. 31, 1862. At that time, the enslaved met in praise houses and churches to await the end of slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863.

Those first freedom’s eve services in 1862 have become an annual celebration called Watch Night held on New Year’s Eve in black churches across America. While many congregations, like Morris Brown, have held this service its original purpose had been lost in time. Last year, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission began an effort to preserve and sustain this cherished tradition.