The Story of Auld Lang Syne

Undoubtedly, millions of people throughout the world will sing Auld Lang Syne to see our the year 2001. Few will know all the words and fewer still what they mean.

They are attributed to Robert Burn, who apparently picked up the tune and some of the words from an old man singing the dialect of southwest Scotland.. Auld Lang Syne has become the international song of departure, and is sung by more people than any other.

The possibility is that Burns only wrote two of the five verses. But as he has with numerous other Scottish songs, he modified then and in some cases purified them.

The song was initially centered on two young men who drifted apart after their school years, and who, after re-uniting, reminisced about their earlier times together, the happy experiences they had together and the kindly folks they met.

When burns became a freemason at the age of 23 he quickly absorbed the superb symbolism of the craft.

Conviviality was , for Burns, one of the most important virtues. For him Auld Lang Syne is a concrete expression of his love of mankind and his ideal of International Brotherhood.