CEREMONY ( Fr. ef'r'nionie. Lat. ca.rimonia, !Altered rite. probably connected with Skt. !carman, act, from kor, to do). Almost any act. when performed in a regular, orderly, and formal man ner, and when viewed. not with reference to its object, hut the mode I If it s performance, becomes a eeremony : and the more entirely the attention of the performers is withdrawn from the object of the :let, and fixed upon the manner of its performance, the more rrmcmonions does it be come. The purely formal character of ceremony is thus illustrated by Hooker: "The name eon ninny." he says. "we do not in so large a meaning as to bring sacraments within the com pass and reach thereof, although things belong ing to the outward form and seemly administra tion of them are contained in that The remark is applicable to the most trivial cere monies of social life and of State pageantry, as well as to the most sacred rites of religion. for a
veremony which 1s its own object would t•earcely he entitled to be regarded even as a ceremony. The most empty display has always the ulterior object of imposing on somebody.
Cerenomies may he divided into four classes: (1) ceremonies; (2) social (3) State ceremonies; ( 4 ) internat itma I (Try monies, Religious and State ceremonies will he treated of respectively under their various denomina tions. See, for the first. Lrrtatt:v; MASS; lirrE, etc.: for the second. t'tatExtoNIAL, ((WIRT : CoRo .NATioN PARLIAMENT. etc. i•kocial cere• monies will. in a great measure. tall under the heads CouRiEsv: EnquErrE; FORMS or AD DRESS: PnEcEuENcE. etc.: and international eere• monies under AunAssAnoR:. CONSUL: DIPLOMACY, etc.