ceremonial

Etymology

From Middle English cerymonial, from Latin caerimōniālis. Morphologically ceremony + -al or -ial.

adj

1. Of, relating to, or used in a ceremony.
   1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 179, 3 December, 1751, Volume 6, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 53, His merit introduced him to splendid tables and elegant acquaintance, but he did not find himself always qualified to join in the conversation. He was distressed by civilities, which he knew not how to repay, and entangled in many ceremonial perplexities, from which his books and diagrams could not extricate him.
   […] this change in ceremonial observances and outward show was trifling when compared to that in the objects of worship […] 1827, Henry Hallam, chapter 2, in The Constitutional History of England, volume 1, Paris: L. Baudry, page 116
   Philomena Guinea’s black Cadillac eased through the tight, five o’clock traffic like a ceremonial car. 1963, Sylvia Plath, chapter 15, in The Bell Jar, New York: Bantam, published 1972, page 151
2. (archaic) Observant of ceremony, ritual, or social forms.

noun

1. A ceremony, or series of ceremonies, prescribed by ritual.
   There was little ceremonial to mark the opening of the completed railway beyond the fact that a decorated train left Paddington at 8 a.m. on the morning of June 30 a hundred years ago and, passing the beflagged ends of Box tunnel, arrived at Bristol at noon. 1941 November, “Notes and News: G.W.R. Main-Line Centenary”, in Railway Magazine, page 521
   I have been in favour of ceremonial and patterns all my life, and I have no desire to break the funeral pattern. 1972, Robertson Davies, chapter 5, in The Manticore, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, published 2015