As the clock strikes midnight and the world introduction to 2026revelers around the world will sing “Auld Lang Syne,” a song about “an old acquaintance to forget” and, well, other words people might not remember from a New Year’s song.

The song’s origins go back to an 18th-century Scottish ballad, with “Auld Lang Syne” eventually becoming a staple of New Year’s celebrations. Experts explained the song’s lyrics, origins and endurance.

What does “auld lang syne” mean?

Roughly translated, the phrase means “long ago” or “in the name of ancient times.” The song title is actually in there Scottish languagewhich is similar to English, according to the Scottish National Tourist Board.

“‘Auld Lang Syne’ can be literally translated as ‘Old Long Since,’ but the literal English does not give a sense of what it means to a Scots user, where it refers to a shared past that underpins the current relationships of a family, community, or professional/social association,” Professor Murray Pittock, a literary historian at the University of Glasgow’s Center for Robert Burns Studies, told CBS News in 2023. “As such, it is more evocative, nostalgic and community-uniting than any simple English equivalent.”

What is the origin of the song?

Today’s poem comes from a publication by Scottish poet Robert Burns. The poet was trying to preserve the Scottish language and culture after Scotland and England formed the United Kingdom, according to Scotland’s national tourism board. So he traveled the country and collected old Scottish poetry and songs, including “Auld Lang Syne.”

“Burns said in one of the letters he had seen that he had heard an old man sing a song and that it had never been printed or in manuscript until he wrote it down from that old man singing it,” Christine Nelson, who was once a curator exhibition about the song at the Morgan Library in Manhattan, he told CBS News in 2012.

The poem Burns wrote down can be traced back to “Auld Kyndness Forgot,” which survives in a 1568 manuscript, Pittock said.

Historians believe that Burns substantially rewrote the words.

“He didn’t hide the fact that he was doing what he called ‘fixing’ those old songs,” Nelson said in her 2012 interview. “So they could be, you know, given to the public for posterity.”

His words were first published in 1796, according to writing Library of Congress. Burns also sent a slightly revised version to a publisher in 1793, but that version was not published until 1799—three years after Burns’ death. The most famous set of words for “Auld Lang Syne” is the one published in 1799.

Why do we sing a song every New Year’s Eve?

Although the song has Scottish roots, it owes its popularity in the US to a Canadian.

Bandleader Guy Lombardo popularized it after he and his Royal Canadian Big Band played it at a New Year’s Eve party in 1929. In 1965, Lombardo said LIFE magazine that he came from a part of western Ontario with a large Scottish population. It was traditional in the area for the bands to end each dance with “Auld Lang Syne”.

“The main reason Lombardo has been recognized as the spirit of New Years past, present and future, he says, ‘is because Auld Lang Syne is our theme song – and it was long before anyone heard us on the radio.'” LIFE reported.

After Lombard’s 1929 broadcast, “Auld Lang Syne” became part of popular culture, playing in “Forrest Gump,” “Sex and the City” and “When Harry Met Sally.”

Harry and Sally even discuss the song, trying to figure out its meaning.

“For the life of me I don’t know what this song means,” says Harry, played by actor and comedian Billy Crystal, in the 1989 film. “I think, ‘should we forget the old acquaintance?’ Does this mean that we should forget old acquaintances or does it mean that if we forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we have already forgotten them?”

“Well, maybe it just means we should remember that we’ve forgotten them or something,” Meg Ryan’s character Sally replies. – Anyway, it’s about old friends.

The American Embassy in Italy perhaps he explained it best in a blog post: “The lyrics to ‘Auld Lang Syne’ ask: How do we best remember the memories, friends, and experiences of years past? The answer, Burns tells us, is to ‘share another cup of goodness’ as we journey into the new year.”