I've always loved the nostalgic tune people sing at New Year - “Auld Lang Syne.” The tune itself is catchy, but before this little song was put to music, it was a poem, written in 1788 by Robert Burns, originally in the Scots language - a dialect found in Lowland Scotland and Ulster, Ireland.
The phrase Auld Lang Syne means Old Long Since, or more precisely translated in English as a phrase that means "for the sake of old times," which is why we sing this tune at each New Year.
The tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve was started by the Scots and became tradition elsewhere in the British Isles before spreading around the world.
Happy New Year - this eve.
