Auld Lang Syne – The Most Sung Song in the World

Auld Lang Syne is one of the most sung songs in the world, sung on New Year’s Eve – December 31st – to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one. In most sources, you will note that Auld Lang Syne is a poem attributed to Scotsman, Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796). According to Wikipedia, “Auld Lang Syne is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song (Roud # 6294).”

However, in an article “Auld Lang Syne – the world’s most sung song” by Beth MacKay in the St. Albert Gazette, she reports, “Although credited to Scots-international-poet Robert Burns, in fact he revised both lyrics and music from an ancient poem compiled by George Bannatyne in 1568.”

On the website Electric Scotland, I found, “The earliest germ of the song “Auld Lang Syne” is found in an anonymous poem of the 15th century, which George Bannatyne inserted in 1568 into his well-known manuscript of Scottish poetry, now in the Advocates’ Library. The title of the poem “Auld kindnes Foryett,” is in modern Scottish “[Should] auld acquaintance [be] forgot,”—the first line of all the subsequent poems on the subject. This old poem, beginning “This warld is all bot fenyeit fair” in eight stanzas of eight lines, is catalogued on page 59 of “Memorials of George Bannatyne. Edinburgh, 1829,” and is written on folio 80b of the manuscript…” To read more from the website, click here.

37 Auld Lang Syne (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Regardless of who wrote Auld Lang Syne, the song has been one of the most enduring songs. Below is Robert Burns’ version of the poem.

Auld Lang Syne

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,

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 dear,

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 wandered mony a weary fit

Sin’ auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidled i’ the burn,

Frae morning sun till dine;

But seas between us braid hae roared

Sin’ auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere,

And gie’s a hand o’ thine!

And we’ll tak a right guid-willie waught

For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.”

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