A Little New Year's Eve History as We Welcome 2021

This coming Friday, we will gratefully usher in 2021, hoping for a much brighter, less tragic year, one in which we can see each other again without fear and collect those long overdue hugs and handshakes. As you Zoom-celebrate with your friends and family, you may adhere to some tried-and-true traditions. Many of us will sit in front of our televisions and watch the ball drop in Times Square. We may have a glass or two of something bubbly and sing either the Scottish or the English version of the song we most closely associate with ending an old year and beginning a new one, “Auld Lang Syne.” Do you know the origins of these beloved New Year’s traditions?

"Auld Lang Syne"

You have undoubtedly heard of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. He is credited with writing the lyrics to “Auld Lang Syne” in 1788, although he said that he’d not actually written them but taken them “from an old man’s singing.” There were similar lyrics published in the earlier eighteenth century, notably a poem by Allan Ramsay in 1720 that started with “Should auld acquaintance be forgot,” but then veered off in a different direction. The tune we sing today is not original either; it has evolved over time. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the melody is similar to one used in an opera in 1782 and another that was published in 1792.

It was not until 1799 that Burns’s lyrics and the current melody were published together, and the resulting song eventually became a tradition of the Scottish New Year’s celebration called Hogmanay. Fittingly, it’s all about remembering good friends by sharing a “cup of kindness” and looking back on good times between friends, in spite of being separated. Most of us only know the first verse but Burns wrote six with multiple chorus verses, and it’s the last of the verses, largely overlooked, that are especially poignant.

They speak of time passing, oceans of separation, and offering a hand to “my trusty friend” and taking one in turn, then drinking “a right good-will draught” for old time’s sake ("auld lang syne"). So very fitting for this year!

The tradition of Americans ringing in the new year with Robert Burns’s song began with a Canadian bandleader named Guy Lombardo and his band, the Royal Canadians. They introduced the song on their radio show on 31 December 1929, as the world was entering the Great Depression. The sweet lyrics and haunting melody caught on immediately and the song continued to be played every New Year’s Eve, on radio and then on television.

(Photo credits: Top, right: Robert Burns, Wikimedia Commons, public domain; Bottom, left: Engraving from an illustration by M. Wright and Edward Scriven, c. 1800, public domain)

Listen to a Scottish version of the song with all of its verses and read the lyrics here.

The Times Square Ball

Have you watched it every year? Have you noticed that it hasn't always looked the same? Here are some fun facts:

• The ball made its first voyage on New Year’s Eve 1907.
• That first ball was made of iron and wood and held one hundred twenty-five light bulbs.
• It was built by an immigrant metalworker, Jacob Starr, and his company continued lowering the ball for most of the twentieth century.
• The ball has been lowered every year except for 1942 and 1943 during World War II, when it was deemed too bright for blackout conditions. 
• In 1920, a replacement ball made of wrought iron went into service; that, in turn, was replaced in 1955 by one made of aluminum.
• In 2000, to commemorate the millennium, the ball was reconfigured into the Waterford crystal version we are currently seeing, although the traditional materials used to light it were replaced by LED bulbs in 2007.

For more information on the history of "Auld Lang Syne" or the Times Square Ball, take a look at:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Auld-Lang-Syne

https://www.vox.com/2015/12/31/10685188/auld-old-lang-syne-meaning-lyrics

https://www.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-new-years-eve/nye-history-times-square-ball

Here's hoping we can be together again in person in 2021! 

Happy New Year from all of us at StLGS!