It was similar in phrasing and verse to a 1711 work by James Watson, and Burns himself stated that his work was based on an older one.
The song that is traditionally sang today as we ring out an old year and ring in a new one, as we will tonight at midnight, is attributed to Burns and includes the spirit of the older Watson work with Burns own work blended into it.
In this spirit of celebrating another 'auld lang syne' we are remembering days or times that have gone before us. People in our lives, events, places that have been important to us. This has been the practice stretching back for a couple of hundred years now.
The Scots celebrated a new year with the song and spread this custom into England, then further on into America and around the world. It became a true New Year's Eve staple when in 1929 band leader Guy Lombardo began to use it in his radio and later his television broadcasts as his signature song to ring in the new year.
In modern times we take the song to be a last look back at what has happened in our lives and in our world over the past year, and then look forward to a new start in a new year.
