Scotland's Hogmanay celebrations commonly sing “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight.
The song's title comes from Scots and is commonly understood as “old long since,” or memories of times past. Robert Burns sent a version of the words to a Scottish musical collector in 1788, explaining that the song drew on older traditional material. Burns's text helped establish the form that later became internationally famous.
At midnight, people often join hands in a circle while singing the song, especially during Hogmanay parties. Its use spread far beyond Scotland during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it became a customary New Year's song in many English-speaking countries.
A frequent misunderstanding is that Burns wrote every element from scratch. The words are strongly associated with him, but the song incorporates older Scots tradition, and its familiar melody developed through musical history. “Auld Lang Syne” is therefore both a Scottish literary association and an international ritual of farewell and remembrance.