New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day… who can turn on the radio or attend a party without hearing the song “Auld Lang Syne”?
By Rebecca Nidey
Everything I Need To Know I Learned In A Haunted House
The words of the song were originally penned by the wonderful Scottish poet, Robert Burns. It was later set to music and became the traditional music of endings and beginnings. The first couple of lines are beautiful, sad and very poignant.
Should old acquaintance be forgot and never thought upon. The flames of love extinguished and fully past and gone.
Auld Lang Syne translated from the original language to English can mean “old long since” or more literally it is interpreted as “long, long ago.” In essence, the line in the chorus means “for old times.” The song is a call to remember long standing friendships or relationships.
In my December column I discussed coping with loss and grief during the holidays. Obviously, we grieve because we lose people we care for and we have not forgotten them. The flames of our love have not been extinguished even if those we love are fully past and gone. Or are they really fully gone?
I’d like to put forth an interesting theory and ask all those reading this column to consider it. There is much discussion on the different kinds of hauntings and their causes.
Poltergeists, those noisy ghosts, don’t seem to be actual hauntings but rather the result of excess energy in a location. Often, this activity is centered around an adolescent and all their raging hormones and angst at leaving behind childhood. However, it may be caused by negative situations where there is anger and tension (such as a bitterly divorcing couple who fight often). Then there are the residual hauntings. They are like echoes from the past…..a broken record that seems to be stuck on a specific event and continue playing it over and over again.
Last, but definitely not the least, is what all paranormal investigators and researchers crave the most; the intelligent haunting. We love to hear responses to queries we have posed whether it is a knock when we ask for a sign or an answer to a specific question captured by our recorders.
Theories are numerous as to why ghostly spirits linger. Sometimes they communicate a reason by means of an EVP. Through many investigations the members of the paranormal group I belong to have gathered many EVP… conversations with the ghostly spirits. One premise is that they may be afraid to pass over to the other side. This would seem to be illustrated by an EVP recorded by one of our members that simply states “religion failed me.”
Another idea is that the spirits who stay may feel they have unfinished business. The ghosts may have left behind work they felt was not completed or people they cared a great deal for. In past columns, I have discussed the paranormal research group I belong to, The Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters, and the place I thought of as my classroom as I trained to be an investigator. This private residence had been known as The Robinson Spook House and it had many layers of hauntings. Having some abilities, I can, on occasion, hear conversations that normally are picked up only while recording. On my first visit to this haunted site I was very disturbed to hear a little girl calling for her mama. She was obviously lingering, looking for her mother, and it seems, from some photographic evidence that was picked up accidentally, her mother was still there looking for her.
The group I belong to sometimes does some very respectful investigations and research at local cemeteries. On several occasions we have picked up the sounds of names being called in longing tones. In one cemetery we frequent, I was standing over a very old stone and reading the inscription when I heard the sound of a young woman crying for “my baby, my baby.” As I read the carving at the bottom of her stone I realized that the woman buried there had died the day after her newly born daughter, also interred there. More than likely they were buried together in the same coffin with the mother cradling the child in an eternal embrace. The obvious conclusion is that her spirit lingered because she felt disconnected from her child. Being so ill from the birth she may not have been aware that her baby had predeceased her.
In the same cemetery that I had heard the grieving mother, we captured an EVP of a voice imploring us to “come back.” Apparently spirits can experience loneliness as much as the living. That reminded me of a question I have pondered for years. If spirits linger because of an attachment to those they left behind in the world of the living, do they leave when those they cared so much for also pass into spirit? If the EVP we have captured in many investigations are any indication, these ghosts stay for some unknown reason. The lack of a physical body does not seem to stem the loneliness that might be felt when leaving the world of the living and those we love.
As I was doing research for this column, I read about some of the traditions surrounding Robert Burn’s poem that became an enduring song. Auld Lang Syne is used throughout the year for endings and new beginnings….most frequently for funerals and memorial services, graduations, and other farewells. The one that touched my heart the most was a variation of the most common usage. In Scotland, the birthplace of this beautiful song, tradition is to sing Auld Lang Syne at the conclusion of New Year’s gatherings. The singing is often accompanied by a more physical interpretation of the meaning of the song. Those attending the celebration form a circle and, as the last verse is sung, they cross their arms across their chests and grasp the hands of those on either side of them. The tightly entwined circle hold hands till the last note of the song is played and walk to the middle of the circle while still holding hands. As the group reaches the center they turn and face outward with hands still clasped together.
As I read of this tradition it reminded me that at the end of each year, each of us has most probably lost at least one of our own “circle.” Despite the fact we are not physically touching any longer, our spirits and hearts are still entwined. As we start the new year let us all remember to show those in our circle of love how much we care, as well as honor those from our “long, long ago.”
I wish for all of you the warmth of love and wonderful memories to tuck away and bring out on those dark days when there seems no reason to smile. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
About the Author:
Through her work on the investigative team for the Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters, Rebecca Nidey has an understanding of the paranormal, spiritual, and metaphysical worlds and how they work together.
Rebecca has trained in the Healing Touch technique (a form of energy healing). She is a certified Psychic Medium trained by Belle Salisbury, and she is a certified Paranormal Researcher.
Rebecca is the associate editor for Bellesprit Magazine and also writes a column titled Everything I Need To Know I Learned In A Haunted House. She has been a co-host of several radio programs for the Haunted Voices Radio Network and HeyZ Radio Network highlighting the Paranormal, metaphysical and literary fields.
To learn more about Rebecca or to schedule a reading you can contact her at https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.nidey.
