What's with that New Year's song? The history of Auld Lang Syne

By TRACI L. WEISENBACH

Published: Thursday, December 31, 2009 9:16 AM EST

The clock strikes midnight. The sparkling ball drops at Times Square. Streamers fly, horns blare, glasses are clinked together and champagne is sipped in celebration of a brand new year.

Then, people start singing a song that, on the surface, doesn't make a lot of sense. Something about old lang sign?

By the time the song is sung, though, many people have had too many drinks to care if the song is nonsensical.

The song is "Auld Lang Syne," and the only time it's typically sung is New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Where did this song come from, and what does it mean?

According to about.com and infoplease.com, "Auld Lang Syne" started its life as a poem written by Scottish poet Robert Burns. He transcribed it (and made some refinements to the lyrics) after he heard it sung by an old man from the Ayrshire area of Scotland, Burns' homeland.

Although Burns' poem was dated to 1788, there are some lyrics that appear to have been taken from an earlier poem by James Watson, titled "Old Long Syne."

It wasn't long before the song became traditional in Scotland and the British Isles as a folk song to be sung to commemorate the New Year. As folks from that area of the world immigrated to the U.S., they brought the tradition with them and it became a part of American tradition.

It was bandleader Guy Lombardo who popularized the song and turned it into a New Year's tradition, according to infoplease.com. Lombardo first heard "Auld Lang Syne" in his hometown of London, Ontario, where it was sung by Scottish immigrants. When he and his brothers formed the famous dance band, Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, the song became one of their standards. Lombardo played the song at midnight at a New Year's eve party at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City in 1929, and a tradition was born. After that, Lombardo's version of the song was played every New Year's Eve from the 1930s until 1976 at the Waldorf Astoria.

The literal meaning of "Auld Lang Syne" is "Old Long Since" or "Long, Long Ago," according to about.com. The original language of "Auld Lang Syne" is actually Scots, which is an Anglic language of Scotland.

The lyrics talk about raising a toast to days gone by and all the festive adventures shared between friends.

The portion of the song most people sing is the first verse: "Should old acquaintance be forgot / and never brought to mind? / Should old acquaintance be forgot / and days o' lang syne?"

These lines ask whether one can forget the days that have gone by and the friends with whom those days have been spent.

This year, blow your friends and family away by singing the chorus and the other verses of the song, which recall fun days gone by.

The chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne!

Verses
And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp (pint tankard)
And surely I'll be mine,
And we'll take a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!
We twa (two) have run about the braes (hills),
And pou'd (pulled) the gowans (daisies) fine,
But we've wander'd monie (many) a weary fit,
Sin auld lang syne.
We twa (two) have paidl't (paddled) in the burn
Frae (from) morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid (broad) have roar'd
Sin auld lang syne.
And there's a hand my trusty fiere (friend),
And give us a hand o thine,
And we'll take a right guid-willie waught (goodwill drink),
For auld lang syne

Whether you just listen to the song or you partake in singing it at the top of your lungs, now you have a better understanding of the tradition of "Auld Lang Syne."

Just don't forget about it.

Traci L. Weisenbach • (989) 269-6461 • tweisenbach@hearstnp.com

Auld Lang Syne As sung by Dougie MacLean on the album Tribute.