Former German President Christian Wulffwas charged on Friday with accepting a bribe in exchange for a political favor, a year after a broader corruption probeforced him to resign from the largely ceremonial post.

My comments:

A ceremonial post is a position (post) designed for ceremony.

Ceremony? Yeah, an occasion to celebrate or any other important event. Ostensibly important events, I shall say because ceremonies are mostly for show. There’s often little substantial business to solve and settle.

The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, for instance, is such an event - for competing athletes to be formally introduced.

And officials, of course.

Don’t forget the officials. The opening ceremony is as much, if not more, for the various officials – for them to be seen and heard.

The officials, whether they are relevant (as from sports governing bodies) or irrelevant (politicians in general), are there not to compete, but for the formalities.

A ceremonial post, therefore, is one that’s created for such formalities.

In other words, there’s no serious work involved.

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本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.