For natives and anyone who has passed more than a year in an English-speaking country, the New Year’s holiday just would not be the same without the familiar sound of “ Auld Lang Syne ”. While, depending on the community, it may also be heard at graduations, funerals, and, really, any event marking the passage of a certain period of time, everyone associates it with New Year’s. Oddly though, for a well-known song, very few people actually understand the words “auld lang syne,” and much less truly understand what they means or why are relevant.
Starting with the obvious, “auld lang syne” is Lowland Scots, not English. Literally translated, it means “old long since,” which, in a more modern sense, we may understand as “long long ago.”
Originating as a poem that was written by national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns, in 1788, the actual source material appears to be much older: similar lyrics can be found in James Watson’s “Old Long Syne” from 1711, though the old folklore song from which both works are derived is even older.
Essentially, the poem/song is associated with these specific aforementioned events because of the nature of the questions it asks. Looking at the initial lyrics, we are asked, using modern terms, if the past – especially the people in it as well as the experiences we have had – should just be forgotten and discarded. The experiences that we have shared together: for example, all the work that a student does to achieve graduation or, in a broader sense, all of the joy, sadness, strife and struggle that each of us endures during the year. Understanding that the experiences we encounter are more similar than different, the song then invites us to remember our friends and, in an actual or a metaphoric sense, to raise a glass together for old time’s sake.
Understanding the meaning of the words, it is easy to see how it can, more than anything else, relate to New Year’s. At a time when many of us are looking forward to the hopes, aspirations, and resolutions of the new year, we also cannot forget all that we have been through in the past year. Additionally, while remembering our past and the events that we have shared with others, it is always important to remember that, in many cases, that which binds us together is stronger than that which separates us.
