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| Illustration to Robert Burns' poem Auld Lang Syne by J.M. Wright and Edward Scriven. |
Auld Lang Syne is from the Scots language. The literal translation into English is Old long since, but ‘for old times sake’ is a more natural fit. It is also generally assumed to mark an ending of some sort: farewell to a person, a year or situation
Auld Lang Syne: The Song
'What does this song mean? My whole life, I don't know what this song means." From When Harry Met Sally
Harry was not the first to be confused. The world’s best known New Year’s Eve song is not specifically about Hogmanay or any other a particular calendar date. Nor does it advocate linking arms or communal singing.
The words and music of Auld Lang Syne are of uncertain origin. The tune had been around for generations. It was already in vogue in the 1790s when Haydn arranged a classic variation on the theme:
Did Burns plagiarise the words?
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For days of auld lang syne
This was misleading as the words had been in common circulation for decades prior to this. Burns himself did not claim authorship when he submitted Auld Lang Syne to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788.
“...an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man.”[8]
This ‘old song’ has never been definitively identified. At least some of the words came from an older folk song published by James Watson in 1711. This line, for example:
Should Old Acquaintance be forgot, and never thought upon
What is Hogmanay