What is Auld Lang Syne, Anyway?

(KNSI) — When the clock strikes midnight tonight, many people may sing (or hum) along to the song Auld Lang Syne, but what does that mean?

The words come from a Scottish poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 which was based on an even older folk song. Auld lang syne may be translated as old long since, long long ago, times long past, or even once upon a time.

While it originated in Scotland and around the British Isles, as people moved away to start new lives elsewhere, they took the song, and the custom of singing it at the new year, funerals, graduations – especially those surrounding the British military – and at the end of other occasions where people part but will perhaps come back together for various reasons.

It first asks the question, “Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne?”

The chorus mentions a cup of kindness, which perhaps points to sharing a beverage with friends as the second verse reads “Surely I’ll buy your pint cup and surely I’ll buy mine.”

Verse three alludes to a long time friendship but the two had gone their separate ways mentioning “We two have run about the hills and picked the daisies fine; But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne.”

Verse four again mentions the long time friendship and also suggests the two have been physically separated by some distance. “We two have paddled in the stream from morning sun till dine” which means they often spent their time together from the rising of the sun to its setting, but “seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne.”

Verse five answers the question in the first verse by basically saying no, it’s good to make new friends but keep the old as the two reunite. “And there’s a hand my trusty friend! And give me a hand o’ thine! And we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.”

Fun fact. Bandleader Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians performed Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve in 1929 and played it every New Year’s Eve until at least 1977. The intro to Lombardo’s 1947 version recorded and released by Decca Records is played in New York City’s Times Square every year immediately following the ball drop.

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