Many don’t know words to Auld Lang Syne
IT HAPPENS every year. We get 12 months to learn the lyrics – but hardly anyone bothers.
Three-quarters admitted they would mime or make up the words when the clock struck midnight… and the time came for Auld Lang Syne. A poll found that some 37 per cent do not know a single line of Robert Burns’ piece, written in 1788.
Its provenance is equally mysterious to some, especially when it comes to the younger revellers.
One in ten under-25s think Elvis Presley or Paul McCartney wrote the words – whatever they may be.
In terms of tactics, 37 per cent of all those surveyed said they hum loudly when their musical knowledge lets them down.
Others prefer a more physical performance: A fifth attempt to prevent people from discovering their ignorance by distracting them with some vigorous arm-shaking while linking limbs during the seasonal sing-song.
Almost two-thirds were also stumped over the meaning of the song’s title, which roughly translates as ‘Times Gone By’.
The survey, to mark the release of Warner Bros’ ensemble comedy, ‘New Year’s Eve’, found 10 per cent typically gaze upwards through the duration of the song to avoid being detected.
A cowardly five per cent actually leave the room altogether.
Rather fittingly, the most commonly misremembered lyric was: ‘Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?’
Some scamps replace the line with: ‘Should old acquaintance be forgot,’ and something else that rhymes.
In total, 2,105 adults responded to the poll commissioned to promote the Hollywood film, which features a string of stars, including Halle Berry, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron and Sarah Jessica Parker. (mailonline)

Origins
While the lyrics for Auld Lang Syne are attributed to Robert Burns, it is likely that he merely adapted the words of an old ballad,  which literally means ‘old long ago’, or simply, ‘the good old days’.
Burns apparently sent a copy of the song to the Scots Musical Museum with the remark: ‘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.’
The poet also wrote a letter to Mrs Agnes Dunlop, attaching his version of Auld Lang Syne, in which he comments:
‘Light be the turf on breast of the heaven-inspired poet who composed this glorious fragment! There is more of the fire of native genius in it than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians.’
Some say the famous chorus actually dates back to the middle of the 16th Century, if not before.
The phrase ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is also used in similar poems by Robert Ayton (1570–1638), Allan Ramsay (1686–1757), and James Watson (1711) as well as older folk songs predating Burns.
Contemporary Scottish poet, Matthew Fitt uses the phrase ‘In the days of auld lang syne’ as the equivalent of ‘Once upon a time…’ in his retelling of fairy tales.
Here are the lyrics, though many people seem to remember only the first verse.

Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?

Chorus :
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

(2)
And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

Repeat Chorus

(3)
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
Sin’ auld lang syne.

Repeat Chorus

(4)
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.

Repeat Chorus

(5)
And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.

Repeat Chorus