Colleen Patrick-Goudreau says the word inauguration is rooted in ancient times when our feathered friends were used to predict the future.
On Jan. 20, not everyone is talking about the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States. Some of us — well, probably only me — are talking about the word inauguration itself and the animals hidden within.
An inauguration is the act of starting something new — like a business or a presidency — and its origins go all the way back to the politics of ancient Rome when religion was organized under a strict system of priestly offices, one of the most powerful of which was made up of the nine augurs.
The main role of the augurs was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the omens, aka the auguries, a practice referred to as “taking the auspices.”
They did this by reading the flight patterns, songs and eating habits of birds.