The New Year's Eve song, explained
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
- The US associates "Auld Lang Syne" with the New Year, but not everyone does.
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After the ball drops in Times Square on New Year's Eve, the crowd cheers, couples kiss, confetti flies and the song you hear is "Auld Lang Syne." For Americans this song is associated with another year passing, but it means something else entirely in other cultures. Since the Scottish poet Robert Burns first published the words to the song in the 18th century, the melody has been adapted as a soccer ballad in the Netherlands, a graduation song in Japan, and more.
This video explains how an obscure Scottish folk tune took on new life around the world and how Guy Lombardo solidified it as the sound the US hears at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.
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Here's our last video of 2018! Happy New Year everyone 🍾✨✨
Happy New Year!
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What a lovely way to end 2018 with the meaning of Auld Lang Syne. Happy New Year Vox!
2019!!!!!! Here we come
Happy New Year 🎄
I'm a Dutch woman studying Japanese. Can you imagine my utter confusion when I was walking through a supermarket during my exchange program in Japan, and all of a sudden the intercom started playing the melody of a Dutch football anthem to inform the customers that the supermarket was going to close soon? I only later learned the true origin of the melody.
😄
"To all costumers, we are pleased to inform you that the dutch has indeed invading and its replacing our goverment"
Ik snap 'm nu ook pas 😊😃🙃 maar kan me voorstellen dat het heel erg raar was! Zit zo in ons dna idd als lijflied voor de voetbal 👏🏽⚽ maar dit nummer is prachtig 💞 De versie van The Cast brengt iedere keer weer een nostalgisch gevoel naar boven. Happy new Year wherever you are 🧡🇳🇱
Hahah love that. This song hits different knowing the history
The only "dutch" song that i know is the GTAV's Pisswasser song
Fun fact: in Japan, Auld Lang Syne is more widely used as a ‘the store is now closing’ song.
If you stay in any department store that is closing in 10-15min, this song will come on, over the PA.
imagine like being in the department store 10 mins before closing time and new years and you hear this
that’s so cool! :)
I've never heard this song played in Japan.. but okay
Noticed that as well when I was there, especially funny when you are dutch and its our football anthem
@@reiradesu it is sung on graduation in Japan! I forgor what the title is but it's sth firefly
I feel like no one really knows the song but we all kind of hum it and butcher the words drunkly 😂😂
That's the only true way as a Scot if your not butchering words then you're doing it wrong 😋
♫ shoooouuuuld ooold acquaaaaiiiintance be forgot then caaaan yooooou seeeeee? shoooooouuuld ooooo Canadaaa beeeee forgot le-eet everyone oooooold siiiine! HAPPY NEW YEAR! ♫
**falls face first on glass coffee table**
David Caitens to be fair that’s standard for most things Burns published 😂
David Caitens nah man if u don’t know the song yet no a Scot
Yes, yes we do
I’d love a pub to bring back the everybody singing vibe
Still got it in Oz, mostly Pub Rock songs.
CHEERS
We in Hastings had (before the 🦠) weekly shanty nights - such fun & togetherness singing with the whole pub. They moved it to Zoom but it just wasn’t the same.
Just don't use the word vibe
@@Bella_Nekro it was used grammatically correct here i believe
This song always makes me cry, practically on command
Ha! Thought I was the only one!!!!😁
It always makes me tear up
The real hero that made 'Auld Lang Syne' be to what it is now is the old man that sang it in which Robert Burns heard and wrote down, kudos to the old man 👍
And I bet he wasn’t paid a cent for it either.
@@catherineehlers8115 and why should he. Culture has no price, his value is despite the fact his name being lost to time. He have given more to Scottish culture than the majority of Scotsman ever will. Highland culture was eradicated within 200 years. The same would have happened to lowland culture of it wasn’t for the works of Burns (who was far from a rich man). And sir Walter Scott.
Money means nothing to the survival of a nation. My culture was eradicated by oppression. The same would have happened to lowland Scottish culture if it wasn’t for a few people willing to share their story. Why should money be earned.
@@cammysmith7562 Cool Cammy
nice coat
@@cammysmith7562damn, that deep. You actually made me think for a good thirty minutes, and that's quite rare.
The European Parliament singing this after the Brexit deal was approved.... That was proper emotional. All those people from all nationalities singing together, bidding friends a fair farewell. I'll never forget that.
'Friends', your joking, right?
@@AndrewArminRyan despite the nationalistic facade of our southern neighbours, Scots still consider Europe to be friends and allies.
@@ljhb48 As do Londoners!
@@morganjones638 Uhhh...probably not coventry tho...
Tbf most Brits do, remainer or not we see Europeans as our brothers and sisters, just don't like the EU
0:25 It’s not really “about fireflies” in Japan; rather, it’s about the culmination of hard work and diligent scholarship, using a famous story from ancient China. Because of that, the song (usually in 3/4 time) is used at graduations and as an auditory cue that it’s closing time at stores and whatnot.
saiyajedi Well that explains the store comment! The video makes brief mention to it being used at Asian graduations.
👍
good info!
Whats the story from ancient china called
I'm going to tak a right-gud willie-waught tonight.
They might think you're saying Willy Wonka and hand you chocolate.
I'm gonna get drunk , then beat up my wife.
@@ezrabrooks7785 no don't do that. BTW love your board games.
It's irish whiskey for me!
@@ezrabrooks7785 yooo
Clicked on this because I’m Scottish and attention seeking.
Same, with the added incentive that I have an exam tomorrow so *of course* this is the best use of my time.
Yes
@@katy3901 i have three essays overdue and i agree this is a better use of my time im not scottisch nor american but yet here i am
@@rahinc Can i slip in?
Lol
The French version talks about friends you are leaving, singing your hope to see them again one day: ‘it’s a goodbye, not a farewell’.
Growing up in Haiti, that's how it was used to. I always heard it at funerals. It took me a while to get used to hearing it at New Year's Eve parties when I moved to the States 18 years ago.
That is what it's about in ANY language.
@@LeeKeels not in the Netherlands mate, didn't you see the vid?
Same in Spanish
Same in Malay
6:18 "even if you don't know the words" *shows Mariah Carey* LOL
Lili Koch That was savage of Vox! 😂
LOL. So shady...
was scrolling for this comment
"I dont know her"
MAXIMUM shade lololol
In Scotland, it's sung at the end of a ceilidh (sort of traditional gathering with lots of dancing and drinking), but the sentiment is the same - a warm nostalgia for good times spent with good people - with just a hint of melancholy for the passage of time.
I'm not very sentimental, but this gets me almost every time.
I haven't been to a ceilidh in years...
I’m from the states, but my grandparents were both from Scotland and happened to land in a community that was largely Scottish. I grew up going to ceilidhs, but haven’t been to one in forever.
@@dakrakenz5314 We still have them in Alabama but we call them Kay-Lee.
@@eddenoy321 that's how it's pronounced
God I’m proud to be Scottish!
"Why are songs that people don't understand become so widespread?"
*Heard of Despacito?*
Have you heard of KPOP?
@@jdrawsshit4837 ew
I guess 400+ million people might disagree with that statement
I think nothing can ever overcome Dragostea Din Tei... not even Gangnam Style
There’s a lot of people who speak Spanish including myself 🙂
Happy New year everyone. We made it.
1865, 1918, 1945, 2020
Auld Lang Syne is by my tiny country Scotland. It's so great when we see Scotland on a big stage like this!
Satzz Today it’s more Rab C Nesbitt than Rabbie Burns.
Didn’t know Scotland was a country
Scotland isn’t a country officially tho
ArioxGaming it is a country,however it isn’t a sovereign nation
You Scots don't get enough credit, you're the part of the UK that people actually like.
dude the ending gave me nostalgic tears
Same!
Glad I'm not the only one 🤧
Same
Who's still watching this in 2020?
Brings me back memories that both bring joy and pain, who can relate?
I cry every time. It’s my favorite song.
Whatever the meaning may be... this song represents the passing of a year and on to another. While not forgetting those who didn't make it, it reminds us that we still have a chance to do more and to be better.
Happy New Year everyone!
Happy new year to everyone.
Cool username
🖕
And happy new years to you as well..!!
씨발 nb. ????6$)
It's still Clark's show that seacrest is on
Robert Burns even has his own day in Scotland, were people have an "burns supper" consisting of (the national dish) haggis, Neeps (turnip) and taties (potatoes). Often includes whisky, shortbread traditional songs and dances (as well as Burns Poetry) and most often lots and lots of tartan basically as many stereotypes as you can think of cramped into one night
We celebrate burns night south of the border as well for some reason
Eh, most people just buy the Burn's Night supper out of Tesco tbh. We did the meal and nothing else in most everyone I know's houses, anyway. I grew up in Ayrshire so we were all sick to death of him by the time we grew up.
There's a Burn's night here in Ireland in my city every year in a pub called Bobby Byrnes lol, love the neeps, tatties and haggis! Xx
it's really funny to hear Burns night be described this way as someone who grew up with it (I grew up in England but have a Scottish dad and now I live here)
At schools we learn the poems for a Scots verse. I learned all of Tam O’ Shanter last year
Hearing this song play each new year always gets me emotional especially as I get older, loved ones pass on, & friends & family move away. But we gather together again for Christmas and wish each other a new year.
How beautiful to see the same sentiment express in so many nationalities. Music really does transcend.
Didn't know there was a "New Year's Eve Song".
*listens to it*
Oh yea..
Same, lol!
Yeaaa😆😆😆
Then there's Rudolph's version:
ua-cam.com/video/ghQI-3MGt5A/v-deo.html
it does feel very conclusive. It's like somebody noticed the last of the guests leaving, and they converted that feeling into a song. Beautiful. Sad. Reflective.
Really wasn’t expecting to cry when I watched this.
I get it...
In 2020, we all feel nostalgia and a sense of loss.
Oh.....gosh I almost cried watching this video......
Happy New Year 2021!!! I hope you stay safe and well.
Aye that’s another thing us scots have brought to the world, nae bother thank us later
But it never hurts to hear
😂😂
Aye and coloured tele
I never knew so many other countries also sang it at Hogmany till I was watching US tv.
t'is later, thank ye
In france it's "it's only a goodbye, my brothers" "ce n'est qu'un au revoir, mes frères"
more like "see you soon"
In Catalonia it's "L'hora dels adéus"
It's time to say Goodbye
In Germany it's: "Farewell, my brothers, close the circle, till all will have returned, the future lies in darkness, and weights heavy on our hearts."
(Nehmt Abschied Brüder, schließt den Kreis, biss Aller Wiederkehr, die Zukunft liegt in Finsternis, und macht das Herz uns schwer.)
Yeah it's also used in French Canadian culture, especially in Scouts and such (I was in Canadian Scouts for a few years myself) but yeah for me too, it's a more sad song, for goodbyes.
@@forrest7690 I also know it through the scouts here in Germany
It's really interesting to see how New Year Eve's celebrations differ even in the West. In Austria at midnight, every single church bell in the country starts to ring, as in all TVs and radios the Blue Danube Waltz starts playing, and a few chosen dancers dance to it in the former residence of the emperors
In Finland we watch the Strauss concert on every new year's day.:) So tomorrow around noon.
@@elainelouve yes, we do that in Scotland too!
Bolloggfisch In America, We usually watch the ball drop in Time Square and we watch artists perform there too!
@@parkchimmin7913 - "Artists" is, perhaps, a strong word.
Happy New Year Scythian brothers!
In the german scouts movement, Auld Lang Syne is a typical Goodbye-Song, sang at the end of nearly every scouts event. In that respect it is actually used quite similar as in asia (as a song for graduation), or as a New Years Eve song: Some, maybe great thing, ended, and its a farewell to the time in school, or the ending year. Also the japanese use of the melody, fireflies, has something to do with saying goodbye: fireflies are often considered as something emphemeral, that ends quite fast. So the fundamental meening stayed, for most, the same. (edit: only some spelling mistakes were removed ;-) )
we use that song in brazil too, in the end of every scout event. but with ours own lyrics.
We also do that here in the Philippines
Who else gets emotional hearing the new year song on new year's
Happy New Year Lieutenant Dan....
That part
She tastes like cigah-rettss
Got me in the heart
Damn forest gump reference
About time someone pointed that out sorry I don't intend to sound snarky it's not my intention..!!
I legit only thought us Scottish people sung this but this is interesting to see
You don't have CNN? You've never seen New Year's Eve broadcast from Times Square in New York? Wtf, dude?
James Smith nah we tragically have the bbc
@@JamesSmith-vk2ky not everyone habitually follows America like a reality TV show mate. I've never even heard Auld Lang Syne in England, it's always been Jules Holland for my family.
@SpearOfOrnstein Jules Holland plays Auld Lang Syne. It's when the bagpipers march out.
@@razzle_dazzle Oh? Very well then, I'm just a dipshit. Thanks for the correction.
HAPPY 2024 nostalgic song for 2023 to pass
Thank you, I love bits of history like this. Especially for something where I had no idea why this has become the traditional song to start a New Year.
I Catalonia we sing this song to say goodbye to someone we love. Normally when a group breaks apart because some members go away. We hold hands together and make a circle and sing it and it's a very beautiful moment
In Catalonia it's a goodbye song, we sing it while holding hands in a circle like shown at 1:43 whenever someone leaves or everyone goes in their own way after a long journey, for example I changed schools 5 years ago, and on the last day I was there all of my class sung it toghether.
Funny, I was wondering if this song is common on hispanic countries, I don't think I've heard it in Argentina.
Eutatsu That’s kind of beautiful really.
Can’t believe 2020 is almost over let’s make 2021 a year to remember
Wally Nicholas I will make it a year to remember by running 510 miles in 2021
2020 is the year to remember. It will be celebrated as humanity’s finest hour, a testament to human persistence and adaptation, when all the world’s people withstood the worst that nature could throw at us.
@@mensaswede4028 Do you really believe the soppy stuff you're saying? A disease that kills only a small percentage of people it infects is "the worst nature could throw at us"? You seem to suffer from a distinct lack of both imagination and knowledge of past events. For the former, study about what global warming will cause in the next few decades. For the latter, you can go read about, for example, the Black Plague and the Spanish Flu.
@@bennemann You’re quite presumptuous to conclude that I “lack imagination” based on a couple of sentences in a you tube comment, wherein one makes a brief and therefore incomplete statement about a global event. Based on this, there’s a case to made that it is you who lack imagination. Nonetheless, the only reason covid was not as bad as the Spanish flu was because most smart people mobilized to prevent it’s uncontrolled spread. If COVID had occurred in the early 1900’s then a much higher percentage of people would have died. The reason so few people died from a novel virus that no one had any immunity against is because of our technology. So yes, I do believe that the fact that so few people died in this pandemic, is a testament to human ingenuity. Look, it wasn’t a 3-mile diameter asteroid that hit the earth, so there’s a little poetic license in saying “worst nature could throw at us”, but there’s a good chance that it will be the worst nature will throw at us in most of our lifetimes. I’m much more worried about the national debt of the United States growing to the point of the collapse we saw in Greece, compared to global warming, but that is another conversation.
Well now 2021 is coming to an end. Time flies.
Happy New Year, from Scotland! A well researched, accurate history of the traditional song that is used to welcome in the New Year at "the bells" (the stroke of Midnight from Big Ben's bell in London).
Why did this video make me cry?
Same. That damn song. And Harry and Sally finally giving in.😂
Menstruated cycle
Cause you need to toughen up
I'm crying too hahahaa no joke
It means we have feelings and emotions bundle up inside of us.
I always rewatch this episode every end of the year 😊 Happy almost New Year Vox!
In 2020, probably the new year song will be sang around the world with bittersweet and sad memories for those who've lost their lives to Covid and many other troubles in the world. Where ever you are happy Holidays from my part of the world to yours 🤗🤗🤗
It's one of those songs that gives you a nostalgic vibe and might even make you shed a tear a little.
Rabindranath Tagor was inspired by this melody and used it in one of his bangla songs, "Purano Sei Diner Kotha." The lyrics are mostly about old memories, old friends.
This song is often sung in graduation ceremonies and reunions along with "Auld Lang Syne"
@@maeshamarium Shubho Noboborsho Maesha!!
Are you from Bangladesh? 🇧🇩
@@maeshamarium I am from Bangladesh too. 🇧🇩
In Scotland, (or at least the part i live in, Glasgow) the song is usually used as a wedding dance/song, and is played at Ceilidh's ( that are just parties where you have all the old partner dances and stuff, that also happen at weddings in Scotland) but also are played at New Year's Parties aswell. (but again, sometimes we call them ceilidh's.)
It's done beyond Glesga too, don't worry ;)
This song always makes me emotional 😢
I cannot thank you enough for this video, it's absolute perfection, thanks a million times! And happy holidays from Buenos Aires!
Just watched this as a Scottish guy and I had no idea the world used this song so much, I just thought it was sung at the end of ceilidhs.
Dugster_105 Instead it’s used for world wide piss ups! Who knew? 🤣🤣
Pretty much all of the United States sings this song at New Years across all six time zones, especially at the Times Square ball drop in New York just as all the fireworks go off, it's basically the official anthem for New Years over here. 🎊🎉
@@RedZeshinX NO everybody in England sings it, I assumed this was only a British custom but saying all of america sings it can't be true.
@@littleredarmy3176 Go watch literally ANY New Years celebration from the U.S., Auld Lang Syne is without exception the one song they play all around the nation as soon as New Years hits, whether in cities or small towns it's THE song for ringing in the new year.
@@6thi874 what do you mean instead, you have clearly never been to a ceilidh
In my country, Peru, it’s a song called “Jipi Jay” sung in an Afro-Peruvian music style: Festejo. The lyrics are related to saying goodbye to friends, but looking forward to seeing each other again to sing together. It’s also a really nostalgic song, although we don’t sing it for NYE. I was really surprised when I found out it’s a song from Scotland 😱
Hope you found this interesting. Happy new year, everyone!!!
By Pepe Vasquez??
Alex N. The one and only
Happy New Year everyone 🎆🎊🎉 I hope this pandemic would be gone soon.
Love from Philippines
What a wonderful explanation and records of this timeless classic! Robert Burns would be so proud. Thank you.
In my country this song is use as separation song. It start with “Bertemu dan perpisahan adat manusia biasa” mean “meeting and separating is part of being human”
Indo
Selamat tahun baru!
malaysia ya?
Yes, nice meeting you. @@maidosama
Sorry for the late reply, but I guess I'm gonna wish Selamat Tahun Baru to you also. Hope this year you can reach milestone of achievement.@@TheAlps36
SCOTLAND
this song is best played on the bagpipes
Yup
It's 2020 and we're still playing this in the few moments after New Year. I think those few moments between the arrival of the new year and the beginning of "New York, New York" are serene and almost heavenly, and the best few moments of the year.
May 2020 be forgot and never brought to mind!
Happy New year y'all .This song always bring me to tears with the memories of family and friends who has passed like I'm leaving them behind 2020 was one of those year so I wanted to know the origin of this song .All the best for 2021 .Love and Peace
happy new year to you too
I remember singing this song with my classmates in my last year of primary school at the end of the last Christmas play we would be a part of. Brings back so many memories I thought I had forgotten about.
All the feels!
TY for posting!
Thanks for the explanation! I also love that you included the When Harry Met Sally clips referencing this.
I'm going to play this song the day before 2021,to grieve all those that passed in 2020.
6:21 “If you don’t know the words, sing along anyways” and a picture of Mariah Carey. Touché Vox, touché.
Wow! What a story!
Thank you for bringing such amazing information around this sweet song.
Cheers from Brazil.
That was great! And many thanks for the kind words for Guy Lombardo. Respect!
This song gives me all the feels
My grandmother spent a few years teaching in China, and took up playing the hulusi. She was surprised to find Auld Lang Syne in her music books, and after bringing it up to her teachers discovered that in China they think it's a traditional Chinese song! They wouldn't believe her when she said it was Scottish in origins.
Awww the music is so bittersweet! Happy 2021 everyone, let's hope this year is so much better for all of us than the last!
What a lovely video about a song I’ve known so long but so little about. Thanks Vox, happy new year to you ☺️🎇
Happy New Year 2021!
Happy New Year
love from the Philippines 🇵🇭
I remember listening to Guy Lombardo's version when I was a child in the 60's. It always makes me cry.
Ty vic for sharing this with me
this song always sends a shiver down my spine 🔥 happy new year 2020 everyone !
It didn't turn out that well :-(
@@DrShitrock no it didn't but let's try make the most of what's left ! 🤩
Can’t wait to sing this at home alone🥲
This was awesome! Thanks, and happy new year!
This song always makes me very emotional and I tear up a bit 😢 fond memories of my grandma and Guy Lombardo
Happy New year's from Australia
Salokin happy New Years!
@@WRGOP But, it's still 2018.
Frisk if you knew who I was then you would understand...
Happy new year from an Aussie in Thailand
Who knew an old scots song would live long after it's publishing. Each time we see sing Auld Lang Syne we pay homage to an old Scottish folk song. Remembering the simplicity of a great people.
Thank you so much for this explanation!!
This was a brilliant new years video!
Being Scottish i just love this song but this year Hogmanay is going to be hard for my gran not having my grandad
It really sucks when your birthday is today :/
Its been a hard year for me. I hope yours was better. Happy New Year and Happy Birthday
Happy birthday!
@@kaypat23 thanks!
@@sj6215 thanks and happy new year!
Happy new year and birth year
Ahh i don't know why but this songs so beautiful and the way it organically became adopted in other countries. I was just expecting a cool video about a song and was almost in tears at the end. 2020 has been heavy. Happy new years guys!
Thanks so much!! this helped a lot with my Online School Work!
Wishing you all a great 2019!👍
To you as well 😊🎉
You mean 2021?
@@iamarizonaball2642 To a great 2021!
This didn't age well
Happy New year! Here's to a better tomorrow
Its feels sad and happy at the same time. Like you're sad they have to leave but was thankful for the moments they were with you
Happy New Years from St. John's Canada!
Nah...it's the walking home drunk in the snow song with a bottle in your in your hand full of new years cheer ! 🍻
This has always been a sad song for me without even knowing any of the words. A song to remind you of everyone's slipping youth and the lifelong scars of having to draw another breathe when some else you know didn't.
From the start of the video until it ends, I still got the goosebumps and I don't really know why. Thank you for this explanation Vox!
I'm here after repeatedly hearing it in When Harry Met Sally, The Apartment, and It's a Wonderful Life.
Who’s watching it in November 2019?? Time is going by so fast 😩😩
Lovely Angelique fr
Same
I’m Dutch and every time I hear this melody, I single along the lyrics in my head. 🇳🇱
My favorite video, happy new year!
Love it!! Thanks for sharing the info. I have to admit I was one of those people who had no clue what the words were or what they meant.. I only knew that I got a nostalgic feeling when I listened to it. Now I have all of the knowledge🎄
in Finland I know it's at least sung in the scouts with the lyrics about undying friendship and so on. I never knew it was even a new year song?? Interesting how very old traditional pieces of music can travel the world and end up with completely different lyrics and therefore meanings.
A Bengali song sung in West Bengal, India and Bangladesh called 'Purano Sei Diner Kotha' (means memories of the good old days) written by Rabindranath Tagore is directly inspired from 'Auld Lang Syne'. Melody is little different but both songs have exact same meanings. This Bengali song is usually sung in farewell ceremonies like last day at school, collage or university.
I kept looking for this song for a long time
Great vid! Happy New Year!