It’s time to ring in the new year, and no New Year holiday is complete without the ball drop at midnight, followed by a loud chorus of mumbles mixed with loud singing of “For all the aunts of mine,” “For old ang sign” and “Foothold and sign,” all to the tune of “For Old Lang Syne.”
“Auld Lang Syne” started its life as a poem written by Scottish poet Robert Burns, according to about.com and infoplease.com.
He transcribed it (and made some refinements to the lyrics) after he heard it sung by an old man from the Ayrshire area of Scotland, Burns’ homeland.
Although Burns’ poem was dated to 1788, there are some lyrics that appear to have been taken from an earlier poem by James Watson, titled “Old Long Syne.”
It wasn’t long before the song became traditional in Scotland and the British Isles as a folk song to be sung to commemorate the New Year.
As folks from that area of the world immigrated to the U.S., they brought the tradition with them and it became a part of American tradition.
It was bandleader Guy Lombardo who popularized the song and turned it into a New Year’s tradition, according to infoplease.com. Lombardo first heard “Auld Lang Syne” in his hometown of London, Ontario, where it was sung by Scottish immigrants.
When he and his brothers formed the famous dance band, Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, the song became one of their standards.
Lombardo played the song at midnight at a New Year’s eve party at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City in 1929, and a tradition was born.
After that, Lombardo’s version of the song was played every New Year’s Eve from the 1930s until 1976 at the Waldorf Astoria.
The literal meaning of “Auld Lang Syne” is “Old Long Since” or “Long, Long Ago,” according to about.com....
