Auld Lang Syne

It's New Year's Eve, and a lot of whiskey baritones the world over will be barking out their off-key renditions of Auld Lang Syne. It seems that everyone can sing a few bars of it, but nobody seems to know much about it.


Maybe the only hymn harder to sing is The Star-Spangled Banner, the American national anthem.


In North America the tradition of Auld Lang Syne on New Year's Eve seems to go back to Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians who performed it in formal wear at New York's swanky Waldorf Astoria every December 31 from 1930 through 1976. In fact, for  Americans of a certain age, Guy Lombardo was New Year's Eve.



For me, Auld Lang Syne will always be Ward Bond, Officer Burt in It's a Wonderful Life, miraculously whipping out an accordion in the final scene to play Auld Lang Syne as Angel Clarence finally wins his wings. 


But where did Auld Lang Syne come from, and what does it mean?


As any high school English teacher can tell you, the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne are a Scottish poem penned by Robert Burns in the 18th century. (Band maestro Lombardo claimed to have learned the song from scottsmen in his native London, Ontario.) Burns copped to borrowing the words from an earlier poem by James Watson. "I did not write this song, I merely copied it," he wrote to the Scots Musical Museum.  


The title translates loosely in English as "long, long ago." Because of its wistful, sad nature, the musical version has become part of the fabric of saying good bye to the old year in English speaking countries. It is also common at funerals and graduations and other occasions that market the passage of time, or phases of life.


But what about those lyrics? 


Here they are, courtesy of New Year's Eve Song: 

Should old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

The new year brings us hope for peace,
A new day for mankind,
Where we can all live hand in hand
And leave all hate behind.

For auld lang syne, my dear.

For auld lang syne.
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

When dreams they seem so far away,
Your soul can feel so low.
But love is never far away;
Your heart won't be alone.

Let's make a world where people care,
A world that knows no fear,
Where we can open up our hearts
And hold each other dear.

Our children grow, they need to know
The Future's theirs to hold.
If we can teach them how to love
Then the world can carry on.

For auld lang syne, my dear.

For auld lang syne.
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

So that's the story. So tonight, take a cup of kindness and toast the year gone by--for auld lang syne!


Just thought you'd like to know!


Happy New Year!