Old Acquaintance

Take a cup of kindness yet

The Scots are good at throwing parties. We’ve got the tunes, the dances and the stirring words. It is little wonder the country is brimming with festivals from north to south, east to west throughout the year. But Hogmanay, along with the solstices and equinoxes, is the oldest festival – older even than St Andrew’s Day and Christmas. In times past Christmas wasn’t such an all-important day in Scotland. The focus was on Hogmanay and in Scotland we still get two days public holiday to recover from the revelries. Other parts of the UK only get one day. They won’t be dancing so hard, staying up so late, greeting so many folk or drinking so much whisky. All-out consumerism has, of course, changed the face of Christmas but Hogmanay is still relatively unscathed; it’s a party pure and simple.

The name ‘Cake Day’ harks back to the time when children could expect the gift of an oatmeal cake at friends’ and neighbours’ houses. And Old Year’s Night is a telling emphasis – the focus on reminiscence, what is past, is the basis of true celebration. What is to come has no substance yet and is the stuff of hopes and dreams. So Hogmanay is a very rooted festival. Good or bad there is real feeling and the sharing of stories at a year’s passing and Burns’ classic Auld Lang Syne endorses this, celebrating old acquaintance, friendship, kindness – things known and precious and worth taking forward into the new.

‘Auld Lang Syne’ which means ‘old long ago’ was actually discovered, not written, by Robert Burns in 1788. “ Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired Poet who composed this glorious Fragment” he wrote to a friend on 7th December 1788. And in a note to George Thomson in 1793 he describes it as “ the 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's singing. ”

To what extent Burns reworked this traditional ballad has been the subject of speculations for many years. The tune itself has been known in print since 1700.

‘Auld Lang Syne’ is one of the best known songs in English-speaking countries, yet, it is sometimes referred to jokingly as "the song that nobody knows," since many people can recall the melody easily but know only a fraction of the words. As well as being sung at Hogmanay, St Andrew’s Night and Burns Night on 25th January, it can be sung at any gathering or at the end of a ceilidh. It has also been adapted for local occasions in other parts of the world. In Taiwan it is used as both a graduation song and a funeral song symbolizing an end or a goodbye. In Japan, many stores play it to usher customers out at the end of a business day. The lyrics of Korea's national anthem used to be sung to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and The University of Virginia's ‘The Good Old Song’ also carries the same tune.

It has been used on many other occasions over the last two centuries, mostly as a sign of saying farewell. Memorably in October 2000, the tune was played when the body of former Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, left Parliament Hill in Ottawa for the last time on its way to Montreal for the state funeral.

Bringing to mind

It is hard, if not impossible, to ignore Hogmanay in Scotland. Houses everywhere are ablaze with festivities and just about every town and village in Scotland has some kind of street gathering at ‘the bells’.

Edinburgh's Hogmanay is the biggest New Year party held anywhere in the world and with four days packed with festive activities of all shapes and forms you might need the rest of the year to recover! The four day festival with the magical Torchlight Procession and ever popular Street Party, runs from 29th December 2009 until 2st January 2010.

The big event, the ‘Hogmanay Street Party’, takes place this year on Thursday 31st December, with thousands of people lining the city centre. With three stages packed full with entertainment, fantastic fireworks, singing and dancing in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, the Street Party really is the place to see in the new year. Madness, the Noisettes, Mylo, and The Enemy are all confirmed to play live at the world’s hottest New Year Party.

Glasgow will be welcoming the New Year with 25,000 people making one big Hogmanay celebration in George Square. A huge stage will be erected in front of which thousands of revellers will gather to join in the fun and listen to music from Deacon Blue, Bahookie, and Tommy Reilly.

In Stirling, set against the fantastic backdrop of the Castle, this year’s Hogmanay entertainment will be provided by Sandi Thom, The MacDonald Brothers, and Gary Mullen (Queen Tribute Act).

Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, will be marking Hogmanay with a free party featuring a number of traditional and modern groups, including The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, Blazin Fiddles and the Peatbog Fairies.

For hundreds of years, the Lanarkshire town of Biggar has welcomed in the new year with a massive bonfire. The bonfire is lit by Biggar's oldest resident, following a torchlit procession through the town. At many places elsewhere in Scotland the old year goes out in a blaze. The ancient symbolism of course is all about keeping the fire and the light lit through the darkest part of the year. It is still powerful, even in the age of electricity.