We have Christmas songs aplenty, but on New Year’s Eve, there’s really only one: \u00ab\u00a0Auld Lang Syne.\u00a0\u00bb<\/b>
\nby: Jim Loboy, Nexstar Media Wire ( WYTV) \u2013 We have Christmas songs aplenty, but on New Year\u2019s Eve, there\u2019s really only one: \u201cAuld Lang Syne.\u201d Most of us join in without knowing what \u201cauld lang syne\u201d means, what language it is, or what it has to do with New Year\u2019s. Some historians actually call it the song nobody knows. \u201cAuld Lang Syne,\u201d as most do know, is the title and key phrase of the song. It\u2019s also the title and key phrase of the 1788 Scottish poem by Robert Burns, which the song is derived from. (The lyrics are believed to be sung to an older Scottish folk song.) The phrase itself translates to \u201cold long since\u201d and basically means \u201cdays gone by.\u201d Merriam-Webster actually defines it as \u201cthe good old times.\u201d So the song brings to mind thoughts of past times \u2014 but also more than that. The original five-verse poem essentially gets people singing, \u201cLet\u2019s drink to days gone by.\u201d How did \u201cAuld Lang Syne\u201d become so popular? As Scots immigrated around the world, they took the song with them. Eventually, North American English-speakers translated Burns\u2019 dialect into the common lyrics we know today. The song was later popularized in part by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians band, who performed the song on New Year\u2019s Eve from 1929 until about 1977. It\u2019s his version that plays after the ball drops in Times Square every year. \u201cAnd surely you\u2019ll buy your pint cup! And surely I\u2019ll buy mine! And we\u2019ll take a cup o\u2019 kindness yet, for Auld Lang Syne.\u201d HONOLULU (KHON) – Ringing in the new year usually comes with celebrations like fireworks, firecrackers and loud noises that may be scary for pets. Kristen Hudson with Oahu SPCA said if you know your dog has anxiety around loud noises it is best to prepare and plan before the big night. (KTVX) – Back in 2016, President Barack Obama\u2019s Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced the proposal to replace former President Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, which would make her the first African American woman to appear on U.S. currency. The idea to replace Andrew Jackson, who had owned slaves and caused the forced removal of Native Americans through the Indian Removal Act, came from an 11-year-old girl who wrote a letter to President Obama in 2014. (NEXSTAR) \u2013 Of all the ways we could be celebrating the coming New Year, a significant percentage of Americans will be looking to the sky over New York City \u2014 either in person, or via their TVs \u2014 to watch a great big ball descend from one seemingly arbitrary spot above Times Square to another seemingly arbitrary (albeit lower-altitude) spot above Times Square. It is, admittedly, a very shiny ball. It\u2019s covered in thousands of crystal panels, and illuminated by even more LED lights. But at the end of the day (or year, in this case), it\u2019s still just a ball, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n