CNews
December 31, 2007
Will Auld Lang Syne be forgot?
Lyrics of New Year's tune stump 'Peggers
By JULIE HORBAL

Party Stuff & U-Rent-It employees Barb Owens, Courtney Kovac and Susan Petrilli show off New Year's Eve party favours at the Arena Road store. (JASON HALSTEAD, Sun Media)

For more than a century, the phrases "Happy New Year" and Auld Lang Syne have been almost synonymous, and almost inexplicably such.

Partiers the world over traditionally ring in New Year's Day with cups of kindness and a few verses of the age-old Scottish tune.

Some historians call it the most widely known song in the civilized world. Others say it's outdone only by God Save the Queen.

When it comes to actually knowing the lyrics, however, it seems old acquaintance isn't the only thing forgotten these days.

CASE IN POINT?

If you didn't catch the couple of lyrical references that already dropped like flies, you likely aren't alone.


I stopped a couple dozen people out on city streets recently and asked them to sing a few lines of Auld Lang Syne -- the traditional midnight tribute to making memories and drinking to times gone by.

Call it a little social experiment.

Many didn't even know the song existed. Of those who did, only one family could chant an entire verse and chorus.

One young guy actually began singing something that resembled the love child of Joyful, Joyful and O Come All Ye Faithful. The eight or so teenagers I approached at The Forks looked at me as if I had three eyes.

One older woman said she "drew a complete blank" when put on the spot and could likely do much better at home with midnight approaching.

Another woman -- who knew only the part about drinking a cup of kindness -- said she never quite figured out why people sing the song to begin with.

TRADITIONAL FARE

Research shows it all dates back to Scotland, circa the late 18th century.

Poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) was the first to write down the tune, apparently after hearing an old man sing it. It didn't take long for the Scots to pick up on the song and it quickly became traditional fare at Hogmanay -- or Scottish New Year's Eve.

Canadian-American band leader Guy Lombardo made it fashionable on this side of the pond during a live countdown broadcast around 1929.

Pat Harris, whom I cornered while she picked out New Year's Eve party supplies, speculated most people forgot the actual song shortly thereafter.

"It went out of style in the '20s, nobody left alive knows the words," Harris said with a laugh. "Maybe the really old people do, but they're all already in bed before midnight comes anyway ... Anyone else who remembers them, they're gone after the first drink."

Barbara Owens, a 35-year-old employee at Party Stuff, said she wonders if anyone in her generation can sing the tune without significant help and backing.

Owens got about one line in before calling her mother, who recited it by heart and word-for-word.

When given the opportunity, most other workers at Party Stuff sang equally lame renditions of the song, the lyrics supplemented by lots of "something, something and something else" and inaudible groans.

But I'm not judging.

No one at Winnipeg Sun headquarters could sing it in its entirety, either.

AULD LANG SYNE (ANGLICIZED VERSION)

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne

And surely you'll buy your pint cup! And surely I'll buy mine! And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne

CHORUS

We two have run about the sloes, and picked the daisies fine. But we've wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne

CHORUS

And there's a hand my trusty friend! And give us a hand o' thine! And we'll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup o' kindness yet, in days of auld lang syne