What does auld lang syne mean? Experts explain the words, origins and staying power of the New Year’s song.

As the clock strikes midnight and the world will enter in 2026revelers around the world will be singing “Auld Lang Syne,” a song about “don’t forget someone you know,” and other songs that people may not remember from a New Year’s song.

The song’s origins go back to an 18th-century Scottish ballad, with “Auld Lang Syne” eventually becoming the basis for celebrating the New Year. Experts explain the song’s lyrics, origins and staying power.

What does “auld lang syne” mean?

Literally, this word means “long ago,” or “because of the old time.” The title of the song is actually in the Scots language, which is similar to English, according to the Scottish tourist board.

“‘Auld Lang Syne’ can be translated literally as ‘Old Long Since,’ but the original English does not give a sense of what it means to Scots users, when it refers to a shared past that supports the present relationships of a family, community or technical/social organization,” said professor Murray Pittock, a historian with the Center for Robert Burnsgo Study at the University of Robert Burnsgo University. “As such, it’s more exciting, more idiosyncratic, and more cohesive than any English equivalent.”

What is the origin of the song?

Today’s song is from a publication by Scottish poet Robert Burns. The poet was trying to preserve the Scottish language and culture after Scotland and England formed the United Kingdom, according to the Scottish tourist board. So he traveled the country and collected old Scots poems and songs, including “Auld Lang Syne.”

“Burns said in one of the books that was seen that he listened to an old man sing this song and it was never written down or written by hand until he wrote it down from that old man singing,” Christine Nelson, who once managed the song. a show with a song at the Morgan Library in Manhattan, he told CBS News in 2012.

The song attributed to Burns can be traced back to “Auld Kyndness Forgot,” which was preserved in manuscript from 1568, Pittock said.

Historians believe that Burns rewrote the words.

“He didn’t hide that he was doing what he called ‘repairing’ these old songs,” Nelson said in an interview in 2012. “So that they can, you know, be given to the community for generations.”

His words were first published in 1796, according to the Library of Congress. Burns also sent a slightly revised version to the publisher in 1793, but that version was not published until 1799 – three years after Burns’ death. The best known set of lyrics is “Auld Lang Syne” which was published in 1799.

Why do we sing a song every New Year?

While the song has Scottish roots, its popularity in the US is owed to a Canadian.

Bandleader Guy Lombardo made it famous after he and his Royal Canadian Big Band played it at a New Year’s Eve show in 1929. In 1965, Lombardo told LIFE magazine that he came from a western Ontario home to a Scottish majority. In that area, it was customary for the bands to end every dance with “Auld Lang Syne.”

“The main reason Lombardo has been identified as the Ghost of New Years Past, of New Years Present and New Years Yet To Come, he says, is ‘because Auld Lang Syne is our theme song – and it was long before anyone ever heard it on the radio,'” LIFE reports.

After Lombardo’s broadcast in 1929, “Auld Lang Syne” went on to become a part of popular culture, playing on “Forrest Gump,” “Sex and the City” and “When Harry Met Sally.”

Harry and Sally even have a conversation about the song, trying to figure out its meaning.

“For the life of me, I don’t know what this song means,” said Harry, played by actor and comedian Billy Crystal, in the 1989 film. “I mean, ‘should someone you know be forgotten?’ Does that mean we have to forget people we have known for a long time or does it mean that if we do forget them we will remember them which will not happen because we have already forgotten them?”

“Well, maybe it means we have to remember that we’ve forgotten them or something,” Meg Ryan’s character Sally replies. “Anyway, it’s about old friends.”

The U.S. ambassador to Italy may have said it best in a blog post: “The lyrics of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ raise the question: How do we best remember the memories, friends and experiences of years gone by? The answer, Burns tells us, is to ‘share a cup of kindness in the present’ as we enter the new year.”