When I was a kid, I wondered why the end of one year and the beginning of the next went by with no physical change to the earth that I could see. Seemed to me that one day was pretty much like the one before, unless we people did something different. The earth seemed not to notice that 1955, let's say, had given way to 1956. There was no noticeable pause in the rotation of the planet, no shifting of gears - like in my Dad's pickup - that caused the earth to lurch ahead with a grinding or creaking noise. The sun still looked the same, and so did the moon and its cycles. What was the big deal?
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What was especially confusing was the song we sang to mark the passing and the coming of the two years in question. What exactly did "Auld Lang Syne" mean, anyway? None of my teachers could answer that, though most guessed that 'auld' meant old, but no one could tell me about 'lang syne.' Eventually, I stopped wondering and accepted it as part of the year-end holiday traditions.
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This year, though, the question came back, and I used one of my favorite research tools, Google, to search for the answer. Wikipedia told me the song was a poem by Scots poet Robert Burns, set to the tune of an old Scottish folk song. (Okay, okay, for all those who knew that already...I'm a late-bloomer/late-learner, and it was news to me that Burns had written it.)
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Wikipedia kindly gave me a translation, and all the lyrics. "Auld lang syne" is a song of friendship, of the celebration and remembrance of friends past and present; a toast of heartfelt love, friendliness, well-wishes and kindness.
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Good answer.
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So, to my old friends and loved ones who are no longer with us; to old friends and beloveds still here; to new friends I hope to know better; to the unmet friends the new year promises to bring -- I wish all of thee a happy new year, a peaceful new year, a new year full of promise and success.
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"And there's a hand, my trusty friend!
And give us a hand o' thine!
And we'll take a right goodwill draught,
for auld lang syne."
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(c) Martha McLemore 2008
2 comments:
This is a beautiful POST! Happy New Year to you and your loved ones...and may they all be bright for all of us!
Cheers!
Auld is old, Lang is long and Syne is sort of "since/past"? Something like that. So.. Auld lang syne is more or less - days long passed.
I've been in Scotland six years now. I know a least a dozen Scottish words even more boggling than "Auld Lang Syne" and I'm finally starting to figure out accents, although talking to Scots on the telephone still terrifies me! :-o
Scotland celebrates Burn's day here every January. The TV is full of his poems and songs and the supermarkets have haggis and whisky on special sale. It's got to be the only place I know that celebrate a poet with his own day and food! ;-)
To be honest, I never liked Auld Lang Syne. It makes me feel sad.
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