Commentary by Jon Quick
For some, it’s just a traditional melody you hear in the background at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Others are like Billy Crystal as Harry in “When Harry Met Sally.”
Harry wonders, ” My whole life, I don’t know what this song means. I mean, ‘Should old acquaintance be forgot?’ Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances? Or does it mean that if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot them?'”
“Well, maybe it just means that we should remember that we forgot them or something,” Sally reasons. “Anyway, it’s about old friends.”
The history of this New Year’s classic is fascinating reading. According to scotland.org: “The title of the Scottish tune translates to ‘times gone by.’“ Despite its strong association with New Year’s Eve, the song was written by Robert Burns in the 1700s and was never intended to be a holiday song. Guy Lombardo is credited with popularizing the song during a live performance in New York in 1929. By coincidence, his orchestra played “Auld Lang Syne” just after the clock hit midnight, and a New Year’s tradition was born.”
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne!
Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne!
We don’t know what this New Year will bring. We face new fears and new evil.
But amongst it all, no one can take away our faith.
Let’s remember this song all year long. Be sure to never forget that “cup o’ kindness” and treasure “auld acquaintance” and the blessing of the new friends we will meet along the way. We truly have the strength to overcome any obstacle, if we stick together.
Try also to make a special effort to thank our brave law enforcement officials, plus our armed forces around the world. They do the tough work. We couldn’t do it without them.
Jon Quick is President of the Carmel-based marketing and public relations firm, Q Public Relations & Marketing. You can reach him at [email protected]. He is a former 25-plus year manager at both CBS and Emmis Communications.
