John Lucas

Lang may yer lum reek…

If you read that and immediately thought, “Wi’ ither folks’ coal!” then you’re probably Scottish and know that this is a traditional Hogmanay salutation. (It translates to “Long may your chimney smoke…with other people’s coal!”—but don’t ever dare suggest that Scots are “thrifty” unless you’re spoiling for a bout of fisticuffs.)

For the non-Gaels in the room, Hogmanay is what Scottish people call New Year’s Eve, an event traditionally celebrated with festive gatherings, fireworks, and the singing of “Auld Lang Syne”.

If you think that sounds a lot like what North Americans get up to on the last night of the year, that’s a fair perception. On the other hand, the Scots really, really like to burn stuff on Hogmanay. In Aberdeenshire, for instance, celebrants assemble bundles of chicken wire stuffed with flammable materials that they set ablaze and swing over their heads as they march to the harbour, into which they hurl their fireballs.

Edinburgh’s annual celebrations include a massive torchlight parade of folks dressed up like Vikings, who set a replica of a Viking longship on fire. Which, quite frankly, seems like an insane thing to do, albeit perfectly understandable when you consider that the Scottish people are, collectively, insane. (And I can get away with saying that, being descended from some of the craziest, including this guy.)

As for “Auld Lang Syne”, it was introduced by Scotland’s bard, Robert Burns, in the late 18th century. Burns sent a copy of the song to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788, along with a note reading “The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man.” While Burns’s version does bear some similarities to an older poem, Burns scholars generally agree that he probably wrote most of it himself.

Arguably the most famous rendition of “Auld Lang Syne’ is a 1947 recording by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians; this is the version played in Times Square annually as the ball drops to mark the start of the new year.

Lombardo and his band got a lot of mileage out of Burns’s song, playing it on radio and/or TV every year from 1929 to 1976 as part of their annual New Year’s Eve broadcasts. They also released at least four other recorded versions of it. Were Burns still alive today, a single royalty cheque could fund the razing of enough longships to constitute a declaration of war against Scandinavia.

In more recent years, one of the most popular versions of “Auld Lang Syne” is that sung by Mairi Campbell (who recorded it as part of a duo called The Cast alongside her husband, Dave Francis). The Cast’s version, which uses a melody that predates the more commonly heard one, was featured in the 2008 Sex and the City movie, but we won’t hold that against it.

And just for fun, here’s Lombardo’s very first recording of “Auld Lang Syne”, released in 1939: