I would reckon most are familiar with the experience of staying up until midnight on New Year’s Eve, likely with the Times Square ball drop playing on a TV in the background. You count down the seconds to midnight, cheer, kiss your significant other, and then join in with singing the traditional New Year’s song. It probably goes something like this: “Should old acquaintance be forgot and never come to mind… umm uh (what's the rest?) uhh… da da da… and Auld Lang Syne!” And then you probably hum until it's finished.
It's understandable why “Auld Lang Syne” is one of those songs most everyone knows but couldn't sing all the lyrics to. It sounds like English, but isn’t quite English enough to easily commit lyrics to memory. The song is in Scots, a Germanic language branching off from Middle English, evolving alongside the UK English we know today. For a modern English speaker, Scots is close enough to understand, but can be rendered unintelligible by a thick, unfamiliar accent. Today, Scots is the official language of Scotland, but remains “vulnerable” due to the small number of native speakers.
This begs the question, how did a song sung in an endangered language become a traditional New Year’s tune? It helps to understand the significance of New Year’s Eve and Day as a holiday in Scotland. “Hogmanay” is the Scots name for the celebration of the new year, which can span several more days than just Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.
What many may not know is that the Scottish capital of Edinburgh features one of the largest organized outdoor NYE celebrations in the world, on par with New York City’s ball drop. The festival features pipe bands, concerts, parades and a thrilling fireworks display over the most prominent landmark of the city, Edinburgh Castle. A parade stretching the length of Edinburgh’s Old Town makes its way to the city center, with participants carrying torches. At midnight, the city sings the world’s “largest” rendition of Auld Land Syne (while I can’t confirm or deny that it is indeed the largest, I can confirm I could hear the crowd from my flat several miles away during the ‘22/23 festival.)
The festival itself is relatively new, only celebrated in any official capacity since 1993, but Hogmanay has been a significant holiday in Scottish culture for centuries. The name has several purported origins, ranging from Greek, Old French, or Gaelic and Norse - the various sources highlighting the surprising historical range of Scottish influence across Europe. And if you don’t know how to spell it, just take your best crack at it - you’ll probably land on at least one accepted regional spelling.
Up until the last century, Christmas, on the other hand, was not a particularly popular holiday. During the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, Christmas was regarded by the Presbyterian Church (the Protestant Church of Scotland) as a Catholic holiday and subsequently banned until 1712. Despite the fact that Christmas still survived amongst Catholic Scots, the majority of the Protestant nation did not significantly celebrate it until the 20th century, only becoming a public holiday in the 50s. Because of this, Hogmanay became the dominant winter and solstice-based holiday in Scotland.
Many Hogmanay traditions have Celtic and Norse roots. Fire-related activities are a longstanding pagan tradition in Scotland, with many believing they warded off bad spirits. Bonfires and hearth fires are common during Hogmanay. The town of Stonehaven has an infamous fire-swinging festival, and Shetland and Edinburgh both put on dazzling torch processions.
Another important tradition is to clean the house during the New Year, blessing it with sprinkling water and burning juniper branches throughout the rooms. What’s better to start off the New Year than with a clean house?
The most famous Scottish Hogmanay tradition is that of the “first-footing,” where the first guest invited into the house - and the gift they bring - sets the tone for the New Year. Some examples include coal (for a warm hearth), shortbread (for plentiful food), whiskey (for high spirits and prosperity) and salt (for good health). Some also call for the “first-footer” to be a tall, dark and handsome man.
Auld Lang Syne was written by Robert Burns in 1788. Burns - considered the national poet of a nation already chock full of them - specifically wrote in Scots to celebrate the language, which not even a century earlier had been discouraged by the English government following the unionization of Scotland into the United Kingdom.
“Auld Lang Syne” translates roughly to “long time since,” and asks listeners to reflect fondly, the mournful tune (added about a decade later) heightening that necessary sense of melancholy. The song was quickly adopted by Scotland for Hogmanay, and as Scots immigrated throughout the English-speaking world, so too did Auld Lang Syne.
Now that the song has seen widespread popularity, the lyrics have been translated to a more universal English, but for the sake of honoring a language that has historically (and still to this day) faced discrimination and erasure, I’ve included the original lyrics. Hopefully you’ll study up and be ready for 2027.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my jo
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp
And surely I'll be mine
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my jo
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
We twa hae run about the braes
And pu'd the gowans fine
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit
Sin auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my jo
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
