--- description: Not everyone can agree on how to translate the title of the Scottish song, but one man gets credit for making a New Year's ritual in the US. title: New Year's Eve: What Auld Lang Syne Means and Why We Sing It image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0f56ddf504dfff3/6988f5f8ab6d7793f86b1175/auld-lang-syne.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Holidays](/tag/holidays/) ## Holidays Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Real Reason People Sing 'Auld Lang Syne' on New Year's Eve ## Video: Inexpensive vs. Expensive: Picking out Champagne [Watch (HLS stream): Inexpensive vs. Expensive: Picking out Champagne](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SORejEuZ.m3u8) (1:27)  _Published 2017-12-05. Inexpensive vs. Expensive: Picking out Champagne_  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Dec 29, 2017 3:00 PM CUT  The Lyrics of "Auld Lang Syne" on display as part of an exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, Dec. 9, 2011. The Lyrics of "Auld Lang Syne" on display as part of an exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, Dec. 9, 2011.Emmanuel Dunand—AFP/Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Dec 29, 2017 3:00 PM CUT When the clock strikes midnight at the end of December 31, the first thing many New Year’s Eve revelers are likely to hear — if the noisemakers haven’t ruined their hearing yet — is the song “Auld Lang Syne.” [It’s not clear who](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Auld-Lang-Syne "undefined") exactly composed the music for the Scottish folk song, which has a long history of being sung to mark the end of something — or even how best to interpret the meaning of the song’s Scots language title, which is often attributed to the poet Robert Burns and could be literally translated as “Old Long Since.” (The Scottish government [goes with](https://www.scotland.org/features/the-history-and-words-of-auld-lang-syne "undefined") the popular “for old times’ sake.”) What is clear is that Canadian bandleader Guy Lombardo helped make it a New Year’s Eve tradition in the United States. Long before [Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve](https://www.dickclark.com/shows/dick-clarks-new-years-rockin-eve-with-ryan-seacrest/ "undefined") became an end-of-year entertainment tradition, there was the New Year’s Eve concert hosted by Lombardo, “the last great dance-band leader,” as [TIME once called him](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-11-14/page/1/ "undefined"). “His New Year‘s Eve concerts in New York City, which began in 1929, became an institution,” the magazine noted in his 1977 obituary. “First on radio, then TV, Lombardo‘s rendition of _Auld Lang Syne_ marked the nation’s rite of passage from the old year to the new.” But where did Lombardo get the idea to make the song part of his New Year’s Eve repertoire? He [explained](https://books.google.com/books?id=HUwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA82&dq=%22new+year%27s+eve%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEp-D%5F7PPXAhWL5IMKHb8uBgAQ6AEIODAE#v=onepage&q=%22new%20year%27s%20eve%22&f=false "undefined") the story to LIFE magazine in 1965 thus: --- > “” --- People then, [as now](https://jezebel.com/t-boz-weighs-in-on-auld-lang-syne-that-shits-corny-1492501702 "undefined"), thought the song was cheesy, to which Lombardo told the magazine, “call it corny—I don’t care.” Yet LIFE summed up how it endured, despite the complex feelings about the song that remain true today. If the song weren’t played on New Year’s Eve, “a deep uneasiness would run through a large segment of the American populace—a conviction that, despite evidence on every calendar, the new year had not really arrived.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5061965/auld-lang-syne-new-years-eve-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5061965/auld-lang-syne-new-years-eve-history/"},"headline":"The Real Reason People Sing 'Auld Lang Syne' on New Year's Eve","datePublished":"2017-12-29T15:00:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:33:02.198Z","description":"The song was around for many years before it became a New Year's tradition","url":"https://time.com/5061965/auld-lang-syne-new-years-eve-history/","keywords":["Holidays","Holiday 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0f56ddf504dfff3/6988f5f8ab6d7793f86b1175/auld-lang-syne.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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