This New Year’s Eve, all are invited to join with the Gullah Geechee people at the historic Morris Brown A.M.E. church in downtown Charleston for a daytime Watch Night and Emancipation Proclamation celebration. It’s a tradition that is over 155 years old and also known as “Freedom’s Eve” because it serves to commemorates the date of January 1, 1863 when Gullah Geechee people in South Carolina and across the South began to emerge from bondage as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Experience a traditional Watch Night church service that will also showcase the rich, cultural heritage of the Gullah Geechee people with performances from acclaimed musicians Ann Caldwell & the Magnolia Singers, the Woma Wamalan African Dance Company, poet Yvette Murray and liturgical dancer Dorris Freeman. A citywide, community choir drawn from Charleston’s historic African Methodist Episcopal churches will fill the church with the traditional, sacred music of the Gullah Geechee people.

Presented by the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor NHA, the International African American Museum, Magnolia Plantations and Gardens, the City of Charleston 350 Commemoration, and the Charleston District of the 7th Episcopal District of the AME Church.