new year...new facts

in honor of 2006, a treatise on everyone's favorite new year's lyrical mangle--Auld Lang Syne.

Made famous in my own consciousness by the witty banter of Harry and Sally...I have always accepted the Ephron theory of subtext for the song...that "we're just supposed to remember that we forgot" the people that we forgot. after all...if we forgot them...how are we supposed to ever remember them? right. so now that that's cleared up, here's a non-Reinered critique from The Telegraph:

Auld Lang Syne has achieved a level of global acceptance that dwarfs Mozart or the Beatles. It follows the National Anthem at the conclusion of the Last Night of the Proms; it used to be the tune for the national anthems of Korea and the Maldives; it's used by Japanese department stores to usher customers out of the building at closing time; and it was played at the funeral of Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

Strange, I know. The accepted translation of "auld lang syne" is "a long time ago" and, most people know at least the first few bars of the song--most commonly attributed to Robert Burns in 1788. Most of us can get through the "should auld acquaintence be forgot and never brought to mind?" part...but we have no idea where to go from there. In fact, the original lyrics are written in Traditional Scottish, but a survey finds that about 20 percent of Scots are lost once they get past "Should auld acquaintance be forgot"...so I wouldn't be too hard on yourself if you're humming along two bars into the ditty.

Of course...perhaps all this helps to explain why so few of us can remember a song designed to encourage us not to forget.

fix your jones for interesting facts about a curious holiday ditty @ http://www.hogmanay.net

Posted by sarah t. at 6:08 PM