Robert Burns wrote the best-known words of “Auld Lang Syne,” the song commonly sung at New Year's Eve celebrations.
Burns, Scotland's national poet, sent a version of the lyrics to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788. He said that he had taken down old words and music from oral tradition, so the song was not necessarily invented entirely by him. His version helped preserve and popularize the Scots expression “auld lang syne,” meaning roughly “old long since” or “days gone by.”
The melody associated with the song became widely recognizable in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, bandleader Guy Lombardo's annual New Year's Eve broadcasts helped establish it as a standard midnight song in North America.
Although strongly linked with New Year's Eve, the song is also used at farewells, graduations, memorials, and other moments of transition. Its theme is remembering old friendships and shared experiences.