Auld Lang Syne

The Mayans were wrong.  A good many of us thought we wouldn’t sing, “Auld Lang Syne” again.  But here we are on New Year’s Eve as this, waiting for the stroke of midnight, with the escalating crescendo of fireworks display on the evening sky, food on the table, as special as it can get, considering the different economic circumstances all of us have, with some of our fellowmen still recovering from natural calamities but hopeful for the new year nonetheless.  Year after year, we go through the motions, cycle after cycle from birth to death, expecting each year to be better from the last, always ever hopeful for better things to come.

New Year’s Eve, as all other holidays of the year, mark milestones in our individual lives as well as in the history of the earth.  For what are these instances but just events in a timeline, divided into measures - convention just made by man.  The scientists among us will be quick to say that time is measured by physics – the rotation of the earth around its axis and the revolution of the earth around the sun.  We count one earth rotation as one day, divide it into 24 hours, and divide each hour into 60 minutes, each minute into 60 seconds.

On the other hand, astronomers call one revolution of the earth as a year, which is conveniently divided into 12 months.  How the days are fit into a month is something which was simply agreed, since the earth’s rotation and its revolution around the sun are totally independent from each other.  Approximately, it’s 365 days and a quarter, which makes us add a day to February every 4 years, to the chagrin of those born on the 28th day of the second month of each year.  But who decided that February should have 28 or 29 days, as compared to 30 or 31 for the others, I don’t know.  And I don’t know the reason either.

But New Year’s Eve is much more than celebrating one earth’s revolution around the sun.  The message of “Auld Lang Syne” epitomizes the importance of our fond memories as we trod on life’s path, year after year.  More often than not we enjoy singing the chorus part of the song without feeling the soft and serene other lyrics of the song.  It talks about years past, of friendships that we built and nurtured, of years gone by before we find ourselves in the hectic, technologically-hostaged, prison of the modern world.  And of childhoods we all missed and wished to go back to in time of pressures and despair.

Let me just quote a few phrases (lifted fromscotland.org):

Long, long ago . . .  we two have run about the hills; and pulled the daisies fine; but we’ve wandered manys the weary foot, . . . we two have paddled in the stream; from morning sun till dine; but seas between us broad have roared, . . . and there’s a hand, my trusty friend!  and give us a hand of yours!  and we’ll take a deep draught of good-will, . . . long, long ago.

It might come as a contradiction on which is the more important outlook – looking at the new year, or remembering the year past.  Many take to making New Year’s resolutions, only to break them a few days hence.  I have yet to meet someone who made New Year’s resolutions that really stuck until the next New Year’s Eve.  But maybe, the old 18th century poet who first sang the song was right – we need to look back at the years past, and remember the memories and the friendships we value most.  For what makes us better persons were all the experiences that we had, and the people that we met and cherished in the path of life. 

Tonight, all over the world, people hold hands and sing the old tune, before and/or after the 10-second midnight countdown.  This evening, think of the past years, and of long lost friends (include the present, of course), and remember their kindness as we look forward to 2013.

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? . . . for auld lang syne, my dear, we’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne . . .