We are at the end of another year and coming into the 2020’s so for a change I have decided to mix things up and actually write something of some value. And since it’s the New Years Eve I thought it best that we discuss Auld Lang Syne – you know, the New Yeats Song that goes like this:

1. The song is often credited to Robert Burns but that is not entirely true, After the act of Union, which brought England and Scotland together as one nation, all the things that made Scotland Scottish began being supplanted by English things. In an attempt to protect and save his culture Burns journeyed all across Scotland gathering what he could to preserve it. Along his travels he heard an old man sing this and he took it and reworked it into the poem and then song that we all know today. 

2. If you are reading through it you may notice that some of the words are not very familiar, that is because Auld Lang Syne is written in both Scots and English. Still I think many of us can easily decipher the meaning of the song – or at least the emotion behind it.

3. Auld Lang Syne roughly translates as old long since and that is just a way of remembering the past times.

4. It really came into the modern zeitgeist through a man known as Guy Lombardo from 1928 he and his band the Royal Canadians performed it at midnight every New Years Eve and this tradition still persists to this day.

5. Due to this influence we have seen the song pop up in a multitude of films such as It’s a Wonderful Life, Elf, When Harry Met Sally and Mr Smith Goes to Washington – to name a few.

6. A multitude of singers have covered it even the Great Jimi Hendrix himself had a go at Auld Lang Syne.

7. Burns may have wrote the lyrics but he did not compose the melody. There where in fact several attempts to find a suitable tune to match the words too – I was even surprised to find out that Beethoven tried his hand at it.

8. In the Netherlands the song is actually a football anthem

9. Outside of the western world the song has found prominence. In West Bengal the melody was the direct inspiration for the popular Bengali folk song “Purano shei diner kotha” (“Memories of the Good Old Days”), In Japan it is a song about Fireflies and It even served as South Korea’s National Anthem for a time.

10. And finally it is not really a fact but I just want to post the lyrics:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!
and surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot,
sin auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn,
frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
and gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!
and surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Happy New Years to you all and thank you for the support.