Robert Burns, poet, gave us Auld Lang Syne.

Why do we sing the popular Scottish song, Auld Lang Syne, as each year passes and each new year begins?

 Scottish bard Robert Burns brought us Auld Lang Syne.

He wrote the lyrics in 1788 but the tune we know now does not first appear with the song until after his death.He was inspired by fragments of traditional songs from earlier times.

Now countries all around the world sing this song, some with different lyrics, but with the same meaning as the original.

Read here the history of how this song became an international hit


Auld Lang Syne always makes me sad. Here is a poem I wrote:

On New Year's Eve I Cry

Auld Lang Syne provokes my tears.

Old friends, dear ones from

years gone by appear

at midnight in my mind.

Rowdy revelers, my peers begin

a bright new year.

They raise champagne and toast.

Unique moments good

and bad, will not come back

this way again. I grab

and hold on tight to golden

highlights darting by,

fleeting, disappearing

like foxfire in a mountain wood.

This party is a wake.

It must be mine.

                     ---Glenda Council Beall