page_title: Ceremony
section_title: History of Secular Ceremony
hierarchical_section_title: Ceremony / History of Secular Ceremony
caption_attribution_description: English: A 1967 black and white portrait of Lionel Murphy, Senator for New South Wales
context_page_description: A ceremony is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion.
  The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin caerimonia.
context_section_description: The main impetus to the development of quality civil ceremonies in the Western world was the foresight of the Australian statesman, Senator and High Court Judge, Lionel Murphy. In 1973 in Australia the civil celebrant program entrusted appropriately selected individuals to provide non-church people with ceremonies of substance and dignity. This initiative to a great extent has now been followed by New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and some states of the USA.
caption: Senator and Mr Justice Lionel Murphy, founder of the civil celebrant movement in Australia, which has now spread to the rest of the Western World
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