ceremony

noun7

1. •
   a formal event at which people gather to celebrate or remember something important

   • Promontory's "last spike" ceremony was so significant to the USA's history that it is still regularly re-enacted today, using replica locomotives that nose up to each other just as the originals did. — 2025
2. •
   A wedding ceremony; a marriage.
3. •
   A ritual, with religious or cultural significance.

   • To whom the Priest with naked armes full net Approching nigh, and murdrous knife well whet, Gan mutter close a certaine secret charme, With other diuelish ceremonies met: — 1596
4. •
   A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks; formality.

   • […] to feed were best at home; From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony; Meeting were bare without it. — 1606
5. •
   Show of magnificence, display, ostentation.

   • Meanwhile the winged Heralds, by command Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony And trumpet’s sound, throughout the host proclaim A solemn council forthwith to be held At Pandemonium […] — 1667
6. •
   (no longer used) An accessory or object associated with a ritual.

   • […] his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man […] — 1599
7. •
   (no longer used) An omen or portent.

   • For he is superstitious grown of late, Quite from the main opinion he held once Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies. — 1599