I imagine lots of people will ignore the risks to hold New Year’s Eve parties, though I doubt they’ll be as big or raucous as usual. But no matter how people celebrate the turning of the calendar, it’s quite likely they’ll mark the moment by singing, or at least listening to, the song most of the English-speaking world associates with the holiday.
Of course, the original isn’t in “English” as we speak it but in Scottish dialect, and it has several more verses than the one everybody knows. Scottish folksinger Dougie MacLean (h/t Mike Dinsmore, who posted this last New Year’s Eve) sings it as Robert Burns wrote it — or, rather, according to the poet, transcribed it — though the verses have been reordered since then.
Burns said that he had heard the first three verses of the song from an old man and immediately wrote it down because he found it “exceedingly expressive,” and later remarked that the song “has often thrilled through my soul.” The remaining verses are presumed to be by Burns himself, though some of his contemporaries believe that Burns was actually responsible for the entire poem.
The tune we sing today is not the melody Burns heard it sung to; this was, and Burns considered it “mediocre.”
So however else you celebrate the end of 2020, don’t forget to tak’ a right gude willie-waught for auld lang syne.