Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote the words that became the best-known version of “Auld Lang Syne.”
Burns sent a version of the song to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788, describing it as an old Scottish song. The phrase “auld lang syne” means “old long since” or, more naturally, “for old times’ sake.” Burns’s text drew on earlier traditional verses rather than being created entirely from scratch.
The melody now associated with the song was printed with the lyrics in the late eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century, the song spread through Scottish communities and emigrant networks. Its themes of friendship, memory, and shared experience made it especially suitable for marking a transition into a new year.
Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians helped establish the song as a New Year’s Eve standard in North America through radio broadcasts beginning in the 1920s. It is also sung at farewells, graduations, and other endings.