What Does "Auld Lang Syne" Really Mean? [View all]

[NurseJackie]

https://www.rd.com/article/what-does-auld-lang-syne-mean/


Historians call it “the song that nobody knows.” And yet we’ve all tried to sing it on New Year's Eve. Here's the real "Auld Lang Syne" meaning.

What Does “Auld Lang Syne” Really Mean?

Brandon Specktor
Updated: Dec. 03, 2021

There are scores of traditional Christmas songs, but New Year’s really just has the one—and we’re willing to bet you don’t even know what it means. (We certainly didn’t!) Belting out “Auld Lang Syne” while watching the ball drop is a cherished New Year’s tradition. Yet most of us join in without knowing what auld lang syne means, what language it is, or what it has to do with New Year’s. We’ll fill you in so that you can use the saying in your New Year’s captions with confidence.

What does “auld lang syne” mean? “Auld lang syne” is the title and key phrase of a 1788 Scottish poem by Robert “Rabbie” Burns, typically sung on New Year’s Eve around the world. The phrase “auld lang syne” literally translates to “old long since” and basically means “days gone by.” Or, as Merriam-Webster puts the auld lang syne meaning, “the good old times.”

What is the song “Auld Lang Syne” about? If the auld lang syne meaning has to do with remembering days gone by, the song must reminisce about the good ol’ days, right? Sort of. It’s a bit boozier than that. -- The original five-verse version of the poem essentially gets people singing, “let’s drink to days gone by,” an appropriate toast for the New Year. That’s right: Sometimes deemed the most famous “song that nobody knows” by music historians, “Auld Lang Syne” is a piece of the long oral tradition of getting drunk and belting out a tune.

Where does the term “auld lang syne” come from? The nostalgic phrase “auld lang syne” appeared in Scottish song as early as 1588, but it was poet hero Burns who gave us the version we prefer to butcher every December 31, perhaps with our mouths stuffed full of one of these lucky New Year’s foods.

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