ONE of Hogmanay's most famous traditions is the singing of Auld Lang Syne, commonly sung as the clock strikes midnight.
But, how did it become a staple of the festive season – and why do we lock arms when singing it?
A Robert Burns poem, which he adapted from an old folk song, it has long been used as a farewell tune, both for the old year and to mark the end of any number of occasions.
The origins of Auld Lang Syne
Burns himself did not put the tune to music – instead, it was set to the song we know today a few years after his death.
In singing the song on Hogmanay, revellers often link their arms in a circle at the start of the last verse before rushing in to the circle's centre.
Research by the University of Edinburgh in 2019 found that the Freemasons, a fraternal order, were likely responsible for starting the arm-linking tradition.
According to the BBC, meetings of members of the secretive order often ended with participants holding one another's hands while singing a tune.
A newspaper report from the 1870s wrote of masons singing the tune in their circular groups, for whom the song was a popular song of parting.
Freemasonry is important to the song's story in another way, too – Burns himself was a mason, and the organisation was critical to spreading the poem – now set to a tune – after his death.
How Auld Lang Syne became popular around the world
The song spread quickly, landing by the end of the 1800s in communities around the world.
Technology helped its spread, with the tune being one of the first songs placed on a gramophone record.
Scots who travelled around the world or settled outside the country also helped its spread, bringing the Hogmanay tradition to the communities they visited or inhabited.
