"Auld Lang Syne" (Was: What's wrong with "Merry Christmas"?)

[Carol]

Carol: 
> 
> > wishing everyone a Happy New Year, with no offense intended to
> > those who celebrate the New Year at some other time, and wondering
> > whether she's the only person who still knows the lyrics to "Auld Lang
> > Syne"
> 
> Geoff:
> Defienitely not, Carol. 
> 
> You're a bit like Elijah who thought in a moment of depression that
he was the only one of God's prophets left in Israel and was told that
there were thousands of others like him.
> 
> I was out on New Year's Eve  with some fellow church members seeing
in the New Year and, as Big Ben chimed midnight, we linked hands and
sang "Auld Lang Syne" with all its lyrics.... and we're not even Scots.
> :-)
>
Carol:
That's good to hear. But what about the people under forty, especially
Americans? I heard a commentator on "The Today Show" or one of those
morning programs (I was channel-switching) saying that she was glad
someone or other was doing an instrumental version of "Auld Lang Syne"
because "nobody knows the words." Obviously, she was speaking for
herself (I'm guessing she doesn't even know the meaning of the title),
but how accurate is her assumption? Are we losing yet another tradition?

Carol, who has been compared with a number of people, but never Elijah
until now