January 20th, 2025, hosted the 60th presidential inauguration ceremony in the United States’ 249 year existence. On this day, President Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States of America. The ceremony was held indoors in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol due to concerns of ice and cold temperatures. Former presidents and first ladies Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Laura Bush, and Barack Obama, along with other prominent Americans, took part in the event. The inauguration ceremony, in accordance with precedent, lasted from 11:30 AM EST to 2 PM EST.
Trump’s 2025 presidential inauguration heavily reflected on various traditions that have been created in the last 250 years of American history.
One such tradition is the practice of the sitting president and the president-elect traveling together in the same carriage or automobile. This tradition arose when Andrew Jackson rode with his Vice-President, Martin Van Buren, also the president-elect at the time, in the same carriage to Van Buren’s inauguration in the U.S. Capitol.
On occasion, this tradition has proven to be troublesome, with some presidents refusing to take part in at all, such as Herbert Hoover, the 31st President, who declared that he would not even look at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s face during the procession to the Capitol. This snub by Hoover resulted in Roosevelt’s son, Jimmy, commenting that he wanted to punch Hoover in the eye, causing mass uproar in the press.
Other traditions include a luncheon held immediately after the ceremony by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, a recurring event since Dwight D. Eisenhower’s first inauguration in 1953. During the luncheon, which is held in the Old House Chamber in the Capitol, newly-sworn-in representatives and senators welcome the new president and his administration with toasts and speeches. The event has changed little since the initial Capitol luncheon in 1953, with the exception of the menu, which has seen changes to include regional favorites of incoming presidents or vice presidents, such as the New England stuffed lobster (a request by Kennedy) and Texas ribs (a request by Johnson) served at the 1961 inaugural luncheon for President John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Taking place almost immediately after the Capitol luncheons are the Inauguration Day Parades on Pennsylvania Avenue and the streets surrounding it. The first parades, beginning from George Washington’s Inauguration Day Parade in 1789, originally served as a celebratory escort for incoming presidents from the White House to the Capitol. It was only in 1841, during the inauguration of President William Henry Harrison, that the parade was rescheduled to occur after the swearing in, albeit still as a presidential escort. The Inauguration Day Parade would not attain its current function until 1888, when President James Garfield organized for a “display of celebration” to take place after his swearing-in.
Perhaps the most famous parade to take place was Richard Nixon’s second inaugural parade. In 1973, when organizers sought to “pigeon-proof” the event, thousands of dollars were spent on repellants designed to irritate birds’ feet. Unintended consumption by birds caused the deaths of hundreds of pigeons, whose bodies fell on nearby attendees. The press described the event as “drop-down-birdeous”.
The oldest Inauguration Day tradition to have survived in its original form to this day is the Inaugural Ball. The first took place in 1809, almost 215 years ago, for the first inauguration of James Madison. The event took place in a large hotel on Capitol Hill and had a guest list of 400 prominent individuals. Despite meticulous planning, the first inaugural ball proved to be a disaster when around 500 uninvited guests entered the hotel’s open doors and overcrowded the party. The unexpected visitors caused a stampede and their presence allowed for temperatures to become unbearably high, provoking the Washingtonian elite to smash open the building’s glass windows to find relief. This year’s inaugural ball marked the beginning of a new tradition with President Trump cutting cake with a double-edged saber.
