celebrant

Etymology

From French célébrant, from Latin celebrāns, present participle of celebrō.

noun

1. A person who officiates at a religious ceremony, especially a marriage or the Eucharist.
   The very reverend celebrant was then conducted to the platform of the altar, and the postulant and her attendants having genuflected, the ceremony of reception began with the preparatory prayers and responseries. 1833, William M′Gavin, The Protestant: Essays on the Principal Points of Controversy between the Church of Rome and the Reformed, volume 2, page 496
   The most appropriate mode of ordering the holy vessels at this part of the service, previously to preparing them for the communion, is for the celebrant to place both the patten and the chalice in the middle of the altar, in a line with himself, the chalice behind and the patten in front; for they are presented before God as one Eucharist. 1851, John Bate Cardale, Catholic apostolic church services, Readings upon the Liturgy and Other Divine Offices of the Church, page 140
   Through it, through what takes place, the celebrants try to obtain a result, to influence the course of the hoped for or dreaded events that either depend on the current dispositions of a divinity or obey gestures or words formerly taught or exercised by a divinity or an august ancestor. 1980, Georges Dumézil, Camillus: a Study of Indo-European Religion as Roman History, page 197
2. (Australia, New Zealand) A person who conducts formal ceremonies in the community, particularly weddings, baby namings, renewals of wedding vows and funerals.
   These are celebrants who marry people at registry offices. 1983, CCH Australia Limited, Guidebook to Australian Family Law: With Family Law Act and Regulations, page 14
   Church and state are completely separate but all clergy can be licensed as civil celebrants for legal purposes. 1997, Helen Wilkinson, The Proposal: Giving Marriage Back to the People, page 41
   When we first began as celebrants back in 1973, we had no poetry in our heads at all. 2006, Timoshenko Aslanides, Occasions for Words: Poems for Birth, Marriage, Death and Much Between, page v
3. A person who is celebrating something.
   1977 February 10, Gerri Major, Gerri Major's Society World: Inaugural Balls Have Largest Black Participation Ever, JET, page 39, Once inside, about all that the celebrants could do was nod their heads to the music and pat their feet.
   […]the celebrants had responded “All hail Satan!” and the girl acolyte had come to the altar and raised her garments to the priest, revealing herself naked beneath them. 1990, Ed McBain (Evan Hunter), Vespers: A Novel of the 87th Precinct, page 28
   The procession began, and the celebrants filed into the temple patio to dance the Dance of the Serpent. 1997, Thomas Andrew Bailey, David M. Kennedy, The American Spirit: To 1877, page 12