Oddity of the Week: The Old Refrain
Created | Updated Dec 28, 2014
Happy New Year, with added hopes for world peace.
The Old Refrain
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
and gie's a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak' a right gude-willie waught,
for auld lang syne.
Robert Burns.
Like the man said. New Year's Eve is a time to drink a 'gude-willie waught', and hope for a better future. That's what this 1919 New Year's poster was about. Ignore all those stars and stripes.
Count the days: 11 November 1918, the guns fell silent. Four years of human depravity and mass murder stopped. Less than two months later, somebody drew this picture. They had hopes for 1919. And yes, we know what happened to those hopes: millions died of the influenza, a legacy of the war. People faced uncertain futures. Maps got redrawn. People got shoved from pillar to post. Struggle, struggle, struggle. So what else is new?
New Year's Eve is an arbitrary date. There's no magic alignment of stars, no voice from Heaven, no mandate from the universe that says, 'Humanity, stop and think.' We just mark our calendars, put on our funny hats, and drink a hopeful toast. And then we sing the old refrain:
For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
May it be ever so, until the guns of war are silent forever.
