Auld Lang Syne Quotes
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Source: Auld Lang Syne
Speaker: Robert Burns
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?
Context
This line is from the song "Auld Lang Syne," originally a Scottish folk poem written by Robert Burns (1788).
All over the world on New Year's Eve, people sing this song—even though they only know about four lines of it at most...two of which are the same.
The celebration staple begins "Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne." If you want to know the rest, Scotland.org—the website for the whole country—has you covered.
Where you've heard it
You hear these lines mumbled by large swaths of people on New Year's Eve, as they pretend to know the words...or know that it's "auld," not "old."
Even Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally had no clue.
Additional Notable References
- They're even singing this song after the apocalypse, in Fallout: New Vegas.
- It was quirkily sung by Zooey Deschanel in Elf.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
No one really knows what these words mean. Anyone who says they do is just pretending.