ceremony

1. A formal act or set of acts performed as prescribed by ritual or custom: a wedding ceremony; the Japanese tea ceremony.
2. A conventional social gesture or act of courtesy: the ceremony of shaking hands when introduced.
3. A formal act without intrinsic purpose; an empty form: ignored the ceremony of asking for comments from other committee members.
4. Strict observance of formalities or etiquette: The head of state was welcomed with full ceremony.

[Middle English ceremonie, from Latin caerimōnia, religious rite.]

noun

1. A formal act or set of acts prescribed by ritual: ceremonial, liturgy, observance, office, rite, ritual, service. See ritual.
2. A conventional social gesture or act without intrinsic purpose: form, formality, ritual. See ritual, usual/unusual.
3. Strict observance of social conventions: ceremoniousness, formality, protocol, punctiliousness. See courtesy/discourtesy.

Definition: celebration
Antonyms: informality

Ceremonies can be simple celebrations, but often they mark an important transition in life, such as a graduation ceremony or a marriage ceremony. In the dream, ceremonies can represent that one has acquired new skills or moved into a new phase of one's life.

For other uses, see Ceremony (disambiguation).

Part of the ceremony of the Changing of the Guard in Whitehall, London.

A ceremony is an activity, infused with ritual significance, performed on a special occasion.

Contents 1 Celebration of life 2 Government ceremonies 3 Celebration of events 4 Process 5 See also

Celebration of life

A ceremony may mark a rite of passage in a human career, marking the significance of (for example):

• birth
• initiation
• puberty
• social adulthood
• graduation
• marriage
• retirement
• death
• burial
• Spiritual

Government ceremonies

Sometimes, a ceremony may only be performed by a person with certain authority. For example, the opening of the United Kingdom Parliament is presided over by the Sovereign (Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II). The naming and launching of a warship will be under the supervision of its captain or a higher-ranked naval officer. A wedding will be performed by a priest or a Civil Celebrant, as in Australia. The President of the United States is customarily sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States, and the British sovereign is always crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Celebration of events

Other, society-wide ceremonies may mark annual or seasonal or recurrent events like:

• vernal equinox
• winter solstice
• weekly Sabbath day
• inauguration of an elected office-holder
• occasions in a liturgical year or "feasts" in a calendar of saints

Other ceremonies underscore the importance of irregular special occasions, such as:

• coronation of a monarch
• victory in battle

In some Asian cultures, ceremonies also play an important role, for example the tea ceremony.

Process

Ceremonies may have a physical display or theatrical component: dance, a procession, the laying on of hands. A declaratory verbal pronouncement may explain or cap the occasion, for instance:

• I now pronounce you man and wife.
• I swear to serve and defend the nation ...
• I declare open the games of ...
• I/We dedicate this ... ... to ...

Both physical and verbal components of a ceremony may become part of a liturgy.

See also

• Rite of passage
• Gift
• Human condition
• Tjurunga
• Event planning

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Common misspelling(s) of ceremony

• cerimony

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ceremoni, ceremoniel, højtidelighed, formalitet

idioms:

• without ceremony    uformel

Nederlands (Dutch)
ceremonie, plechtigheid, plichtpleging

Français (French)
n. - cérémonie, cérémonies

idioms:

• without ceremony    sans cérémonie

Deutsch (German)
n. - Zeremonie, Feier, Förmlichkeit

idioms:

• without ceremony    ohne Förmlichkeit

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - τελετή, ιεροτελεστία, εθιμοτυπία, τύποι, υπερβολική αβρότητα

idioms:

• without ceremony    χωρίς πολλές διατυπώσεις, χωρίς πολλά-πολλά

Italiano (Italian)
cerimonia, funzione religiosa, cerimonie

idioms:

• without ceremony    senza cerimonie, senza complimenti

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cerimônia (f)

idioms:

• without ceremony    sem cerimônia

Русский (Russian)
церемония, церемонность

idioms:

• without ceremony    не церемонясь

Español (Spanish)
n. - ceremonia, cumplido, formalidad

idioms:

• without ceremony    sin ceremonias, sin cumplidos

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ceremoni

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
仪式, 典礼, 形式, 礼仪, 礼节, 虚礼, 客套

idioms:

• without ceremony    不拘礼节

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 儀式, 典禮, 形式, 禮儀, 禮節, 虛禮, 客套

idioms:

• without ceremony    不拘禮節

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 식전, 예의, 정중한 행동

idioms:

• without ceremony    소탈하게, 무관하게

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 式, 式典, 礼儀, 儀礼, 形式

idioms:

• without ceremony    儀式ばらずに, 堅固しい形式抜きで

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) رسميات, مراسم, احتفال ديني‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮טקס, רשמיות‬

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