What is the reason we are not having the inauguration day events today?

[jberryhill]

81. Because it is a civil ritual

What society does not have rituals?

If you are looking for some "rational" reason for rituals, then you are going to come up empty-handed, other than to remember that when you are trying to manage a society, rituals, while nothing more than symbolic gestures, are part of the glue that makes a society, due to the way that human brain structures have evolved.

If we wanted to have a true "inauguration", then we would take the ritual to its roots, cut up some birds, and have the high priests examine their livers or watch the way they are flying:



Again, there is no requirement that the president take the oath on the 20th anyway. The terms end on the 20th (20th Amd.), and the oath is simply to be taken "before" entering office (Art. II, Sec. 1). He could have taken last week, as far as the requirements are concerned.

But - some people are "stuck on stupid" and believe it has to be done on the 20th, so we accommodate them. Others are stuck on a different variety of stupid in relation to Sundays, so we accommodate them too. Yet a third variety of "stuck on stupid" is offended that we accommodate varieties of stupid other than their own.

So there you have it. You can't make everyone happy.

And, because "you can't make everyone happy" we come full circle to the purpose of ritual in society. Yes, rituals make no sense, but they define who "we" are, what is our tribe, and are gestures which "we" make.