Now that you know what the titular words mean and how it came about, what about the rest of the lyrics? You might as well know what the most popular lyrics mean if you’re going to sing the song before starting the new year. If anything can make an 18th-century Scottish song popular in the modern era, it’s the power of television. New Year’s Eve himself is responsible for pushing “Auld Lang Syne” to the masses year after year on his annual show. New Year’s Eve” because of the broadcast. A popular New Year’s Eve broadcast on radio and then television hosted by Guy Lombardo and his band, the Royal Canadians, ran from 1929 to 1976.

One of the reasons that “Auld Lang Syne” made it into New Year’s Eve lore is because of mass media. Still, that doesn’t fully explain why a centuries-old Scottish folk song became such a New Year’s Eve hit in America. That makes the theme and gist of “Auld Lang Syne” ripe for seasonal use. The final day of the year is an apt time for looking back at the days past. Why is “Auld Lang Syne” a New Year’s Eve song? The chorus and first stanza, of course, are the bits that people typically know if they know any lyrics at all. It’s believed that the chorus and first stanza came from elsewhere, while the rest is a Burns original. Instead, he said he took a fragment of a folk song that he’d heard and built more lyrics around it. Gather the wee bairns and take a peek at our list of 15 Scottish words perfect for celebrating old times (and new!)īurns may get the credit for “Auld Lang Syne,” but no one knows who actually first wrote the poem.

Since the first known recording of the expression came about more than a century earlier, it’s clear it wasn’t an entirely new concept. When was “Auld Lang Syne” written?īurns wrote his “Auld Lang Syne” version-the one that we’ve all come to know (or at least kind of know)-in 1788 and published it in 1796. The words auld lang syne literally mean “old long since,” though in practice it means “old times, especially times fondly remembered,” as well as an “old or long friendship.” It’s from the Scots language, and the expression was first recorded in 1660–1680.īut why do millions of people sing it on New Year’s Eve every year? It all started with Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland. Case in point: singing “Auld Lang Syne”-or at least humming along while it plays on TV in the background.ĭon’t blame yourself if you don’t know the lyrics despite the song making the rounds every year. Others are a little less straightforward. Counting down the seconds until the day the calendar changes, for example. New Year’s Eve is full of traditions that are easy to understand.

Robbie burns auld lang syne