The New Year's Eve song “Auld Lang Syne” takes its title and main words from an 18th-century Scottish poem of the same name.
The poem is commonly attributed to Robert Burns, who sent a version of it to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788. Burns noted that the words were based partly on older traditional material, so he was not necessarily the sole author of every line.
The phrase “auld lang syne” means roughly “old long since” or “for old times' sake.” Its themes of friendship, remembrance, and shared history made it especially suitable for a midnight farewell to the old year.
The song became internationally associated with New Year's celebrations through bandleader Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, whose radio broadcasts popularized it in North America. People often sing only the first verse and chorus, and melodies and lyrics vary by country.