Auld Lang Syne

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All over the world when the clock strikes midnight people toast each other and sing the song “Auld Lang Syne”. Every New Year’s that has passed me by I have always been sentimental about singing this song. Suddenly when I moved to Latvia I found out that at midnight the people here sing the country’s anthem. However, this is about how “Auld Lang Syne” became the song sung at midnight on New Year’s Eve. It is not certain about who composed the music for this song but it is known that it’s a Scottish folk song. It is from a poem written by Scottish poet Robert Burns and the title translates to “Old Long Since” or as the Scottish government refers to it “for old times’ sake”. In the U.S. this song became a New Year’s Eve standard because of Guy Lombardo a Canadian American bandleader. Lombardo’s New Year’s Eve specials were popular long before Dick Clark started his New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Lombardo’s began first on radio in 1929 and then years later on TV. When Hollywood heard “Auld Lang Syne” the movie studio execs naturally fell in love with it. The song was first used in the silent film “The Gold Rush” starring Charlie Chaplin in 1925 and was re-released with a new score that was devised by Chaplin in 1942. The song brought many a tear when nine-year-old Shirley Temple sang the song to a dying soldier in the 1937 movie “Wee Willie Winkie” and at the ending of the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I enjoyed the song and the sentimentality in the movie created from the HBO TV series “Sex and the City” as Carrie portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker runs through the streets of New York City while the snow flies to visit her friend Miranda played by Cynthia Nixon. These are just a few of the movies the song has been featured in. Do you enjoy hearing and singing “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight? Do you know if there are other countries that don’t sing this song at midnight like Latvia? Happy New 2018 Year to you all!