Auld Lang Syne
Robert Burns poem set to traditional melody
"Auld Lang Syne" (Scots: [ˈɔːl(d) lɑŋ ˈsəi̯n]) is a Scottish song. In the English-speaking world it is traditionally sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on Hogmanay, or New Year's Eve. It is also often heard at funerals and graduations and as a farewell or ending to other occasions; for instance, many branches of the Scouting movement use it to close jamborees and other functions.
The text is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns in 1788, but it is based on an older Scottish folk song. In 1799 it was set to a traditional pentatonic tune, which has since become standard. "Auld Lang Syne" is listed as numbers 6294 and 13892 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
Its Scots title may be translated into standard English as "old long since" or, less literally, "long long ago", "days gone by", "times long past" or "old times". Consequently, "For auld lang syne", as it appears in the first line of the chorus, might be loosely translated as "for the sake of old times". The phrase auld lang syne is also used in similar poems by Robert Ayton (1570–1638), Allan Ramsay (1686–1757) and James Watson (1711), as well as older folk songs predating Burns.
Lyrics
The song begins by posing a rhetorical question: Is it right for old times to be forgotten?
“Auld Lang Syne” enters the record as robert Burns poem set to traditional melody. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Auld, Lang and Syne can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q211939. VIAF identifies the subject as 181541893. The Library of Congress control number is n95094091. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1788, 1799, 1570 and 1638.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Auld Lang Syne” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.