Given that our Christmas holiday folded neatly into the weekend, my friend was looking for something special to offer her patrons for that time between Christmas and New Year’s.

“Why don’t you show “It’s a Wonderful Life?” said I ( the girl who can never see

that movie enough).

Christmas will be over.” I’m chided. “Everyone will be focused on New Years.”

“Which makes it perfect” I remind her” …since the last scene in the movie sings

that song we all know and love.”

It was the perfect timing for trivia.

Starting with Auld Lang Syne.

The meaning? “Long, long ago”…or “Days gone by” depending on your translator…

But what about those other New Year’s traditions?

For instance…New Year’s Eve…Why the parties, the noise makers, the Mardi Gras atmosphere?

Curiously the original was a solstice party, symbolic attempts by primitive cultures to show order out of chaos. (I’ve been to parties that have mastered the latter. The “order” usually comes once the last guest leaves.)

As with Mardi Gras, the masks represent spirits of the dead.

The noise? Well, that’s about scaring off demons (a.k.a. today’s unwanted guests).

Originally a celebration of winter solstice, today’s transitional week between Christmas and New Years is replaced by primordial instincts to return things to a mall. Where before, the week long celebration involving drinking and yelling (the entire shebang culminating into one somber day of confession and purification), today we revert quietly to a custom of New Year’s resolutions.

As for “Auld Lang Syne,” the original lyric traces to a number of folk sources, but the most well known was written in 1788 by Scotland’s national poet Robert

Burns.

An anthem made popular by the Scots, “Auld Lang Sine” has become the sentimental

point of partying demarcation, wherein we pause long enough to remember the reason for the season and appreciate the year that was.

Karlen Evins, author of “I Didn’t Know That” welcomes your feedback at www.karlenevins. com