Auld Lang Syne

Two Cups of Tea at Hope’s Café

One friend sent a Christmas letter in which she noted that she and her husband had decided this would be the last year to send Christmas cards, time and expense involved becoming more than they wanted to manage.  Fortunately, she is among a group of friends that keeps regular contact and gets together every couple of years for a reunion. I know we will still be in touch.  But given how the number of cards has dropped in my mailbox this year I think many folks have reduced the number of holiday greetings they send or they have discontinued the practice altogether. I am distressed that there are folks with whom I am likely going to lose contact.

Last year I went to a young twenty-something hairdresser I hadn’t been to before.  Making conversation, I said I had given up that I would get Christmas cards out before Christmas.  Puzzled, she said, “Christmas cards??”  She didn’t know what I was talking about.  As she thought about it, she finally said, “Oh, I remember my mother used to do that.”  I don’t know who was the more startled: I, that she had no clue initially what I was talking about or she, once she recalled it, that I was concerned about such an antiquated tradition.

This year I especially seem attuned to keeping folks close.  This may be motivated by my aging, wanting to maintain new connections and savor long-term relationships built over the years.  Likely the state of this uncertain world contributes to that sense as well.  When so much seems fragile, I turn to those reliable people whose love and friendship sustain me.

This led me to think about the song Auld Lang Syne, a Scottish tradition, normally sung at midnight on New Year’s Eve.  I learned from Wikipedia that there is a dance associated with this as well, which is done at Hogmanay, Scottish for “the last day of the year.”

“At Hogmanay in Scotland, it is common practice that everyone joins hands with the person next to them to form a great circle around the dance floor. At the beginning of the last verse (And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!/and gie’s a hand o’ thine!), everyone crosses their arms across their breast, so that the right hand reaches out to the neighbour on the left and vice versa.^[23][24] When the tune ends, everyone rushes to the middle, while still holding hands. When the circle is re-established, everyone turns under the arms to end up facing outwards with hands still joined. The tradition of singing the song when parting, with crossed hands linked, arose in the mid-19th century among Freemasons and other fraternal organisations.^[25][26]

Outside Scotland the hands are often crossed from the beginning of the song.” 

 This image could almost bring me to tears. In this time of so many expressions of hatred and cruelty, to think of this demonstration of friendship and connection touches me deeply.  Today I had a phone call from a friend of over sixty years and another one from friends we made on a vacation in the summer of 2024. What a gift!   New Year’s Eve we celebrate with a collection of friends, some more recent and some we have been sharing the ups and downs of life with for decades. Maybe we’ll sing Auld Lang Syne…..maybe even dance to it! (But likely not at midnight! Our decades are showing!)

The invitation is open to share two cups of tea anytime at Hope’s Café or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

May we bearers of hope, the “wait staff” at Hope’s Café, for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate