Robert Burns is credited with writing the words of “Auld Lang Syne,” the song commonly sung at New Year's celebrations.
Burns, Scotland's best-known national poet, sent a version of the Scots poem to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788. He described the text as based partly on older traditional material, so the song is not simply a wholly original composition. Its title means “old long since,” or more naturally, “for old times' sake.”
The melody used today became associated with the lyrics during the nineteenth century, and the song spread widely through Scottish communities and later through popular music. It is especially linked with midnight on December 31, although it can also be sung at farewells, reunions, and memorial occasions. People sometimes call it Burns's song without realizing that he adapted earlier folk verses and that the modern tune evolved separately from the earliest printed words.