Auld Lang Syne — the story behind the song

It may not be an exaggeration to call Auld Lang Syne the best-known song in the world. In Scotland its history reaches back at least to the 15th century. The earliest written text — a poem from 1568 — overlaps with the present-day lyric in only a few lines but is recognisably the same song. There it tells of a war-scarred man returning home to a woman who welcomes him as a hero and hopes they can be as happy as they were before he left.

Many versions survived over the centuries until Robert Burns gave the song its definitive form. Burns was struck on hearing the song from an old man and wrote down a polished version, but only the chorus and a verse or two are likely to be genuinely traditional — even those are not identical to the older texts.

The phrase "auld lang syne" — "old long since" or "times long past" — sums up the song's mood: a toast to friendship and shared memory, sung at the end of a night when people are about to part. In Scotland it is sung at the close of Hogmanay, of a ceilidh, and of countless gatherings. Around the world it marks the change of year almost everywhere people speak English.

There are several Estonian translations of the song; the other Auld Lang Syne articles on this site walk through them.