For Auld Lang Syne, My Dear, For Auld Lang Syne

Happy New Year! The standard greeting in early January. I've never really liked New Years - well, more particularly, I've never really liked New Year's Eve. I find myself a bit melancholic every December 31. Oh, I like to watch the ball drop in New York Times Square, but all in all, I do not look forward to New Year's Eve.

It's true that the New Year offers a fresh new start - a blank page ready to be written upon. The New Year offers a whole year of new opportunities, the chance to improve myself, and to make new resolve to do some of those things I didn't get a chance to do in the Old Year.

However, as I contemplate the loss of the Old Year, I find myself slipping into a melancholic state - reflective of all that's passed and the time that seems to pass more quickly with each passing year.

When I was a growing up on New Year's Eve, we watched Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, playing in the Grand Ballroom of New York's Waldorf Astoria. Guy Lombardo and his band popularized the song "Auld Lang Syne," turning it into a New Year's Eve tradition.

Lombardo first heard "Auld Lang Syne" as a teenager in his hometown of London, Ontario, where it was sung by Scottish immigrants. When he and his brothers formed the famous dance band, Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, the song became one of their standards. Lombardo played the song at midnight at a New Year's eve party at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City in 1929, and a tradition was born.

After that, Lombardo's version of the song was played every New Year's eve from the 1930s until 1976 at the Waldorf Astoria. In the first years it was broadcast on radio, and then on television. The song became such a New Year's tradition that Life Magazine wrote "that if Lombardo failed to play 'Auld Lang Syne,' the American public would not believe that the new year had really arrived." In fact, it's Guy Lombardo and His Royal Candians recording of Auld Lang Syne still plays as the first song of the new year in Times Square.

It's been said that "Auld Lang Syne" is one of the most popular songs that nobody knows the lyrics to. C'mon, admit it - off the top of your head, you can sing some of it, but all of it? "Should auld acquaintance be forgot and hum-hum-hum-hum-hum."

Auld Lang Syne - what does that mean, anyway? Literally translated from 18th century language of Lowlanders in Scotland, it means "old long since." A good idiomatic translation is "times gone by."

I guess that's what makes me feel nostalgic and yes, a bit weepy on New Year's Eve - remembering all the "times gone by." My nostalgia lingers awhile into January - reflective of all those "times gone by." And at the same time I'll reflect on whether or not I've been living the kind of life I ought to live - what do I say are my priorities and am I living in a way that reflects those priorities - where do I need to improve the way I'm living - where have I gotten off-track physically, spiritually, relationally?

All over the world, people welcome the new year for it is one of the oldest of all holidays. It is a time to reflect on the past and envision a future. I leave you with this: "Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better [person]." ~Benjamin Franklin

By God's Grace,
Michelle