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Showing posts with the label happy new year

Origin of Auld Lang Syne?

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I llustration to Robert Burns' poem  Auld Lang Syne  by J.M. Wright and Edward Scriven . The words and music of  Auld Lang Syne  are of uncertain origin. The tune  had been around for generations. It was already in vogue in the 1790s when Haydn arranged a classic variation on the theme: Some of the words were also already in circulation decades before their first publication in 1796, in an anthology of traditional Scottish verse. Attribution went posthumously to Robert Burns. This was misleading. Burns himself had not claimed authorship when he submitted Auld Lang Syne to the   Scots Musical Museum   in 1788. “...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.” [8] This ‘old man’ has never been identified. It seems likely that at least some of the words came from an older folk song published by James Watson in 1711. These lines seem, ahem, similar: Should Old Acquaintance be forgot, and never thought

What is Hogmanay?

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Fireworks at Edinburgh Castle. Photo by Chris Flexen on Unsplash Hogmanay is the word used to describe the very distinctive Scottish celebration of New Years’s Eve. This includes the communal singing of Auld Lang Syne, with words by the national poet Robbie Burns. Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot And the days of auld lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear For auld lang syne We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet For the sake of auld lang syne The tradition of linking arms as you sing Auld Lang Syne at to welcome in the new year has spread across the world. Other Hogmanay customs include 'first-footing' - the welcoming the first visitor . First footers are encouraged to carry a lump of coal and gifts of whisky and shortbread. According to custom, tall tall dark strangers bring luck.  Origin of the word  Hogmanay There are a number of not entirely convincing theories: Hoggo-nott was a Scandinavian word for the short