Tonight, many people will gather together to celebrate the new year, but whether you’re out at a party or waiting for Big Ben to chime from your sofa, it’s likely that as soon as the clock strikes midnight, you will be belting out the words to: “Auld Lang Syne.” However, I can almost bet you have no clue what it means or why we sing it.

The title and lyrics of the song actually come from a poem written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788. The phrase “Auld lang syne,” literally translates to “old long since” or “for the sake of old times”.

Burns’s original five-verse poem is about friends catching up over a drink after a long time apart, and its purpose was essentially to get people to toast to the new year. A song about reminiscing over the good times is perfect to wave goodbye to the past year and introduce the start of a new year, demonstrating why Auld Lang Syne fits the bill.

Whilst always being popular in Scotland, Scottish immigrants travelled around the world to places like the US taking the song with them in the 19th Century. English-speaking North Americans then translated Burns’s dialect into the modern lyrics we know today; but the fame of the song was actually attributable to Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians band. The group first performed Auld Lang Syne in 1929, during a New Year’s Eve broadcast in New York, minutes after midnight and since became the tradition- broadcasting the song into millions of homes every year, until about 1977. Furthermore, this familiar melody was brought to an even bigger audience by the film industry, as it appeared in several films including It’s a Wonderful Life (in 1946) and When Harry Met Sally (in 1989), thus securing its position in society.

But did you know Auld Lang Syne isn’t just sung on New Year’s Eve? The song is also sung at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, at passing out parades for the Royal Navy, as well as for many other military bodies across the world and often during Burns Night celebrations too- illustrating how Robert Burns’s original, simple piece of poetry has become a significant part of modern culture worldwide.