Pomp is a ceremonial display, such as you'd find at the Independence Day parade in your town, where brass bands and men and women in full military dress march to patriotic songs, while citizens wave flags and cheer.
Graduation ceremonies–-with gowns, invocations, speeches, and the ceremonial conferring of degrees––are full of pomp. In fact, graduates traditionally march to a tune called "Pomp and Circumstance." Pomp used to be much more closely linked to the word pompous, or self-important, than it is now––an archaic meaning of pomp is over the top, ostentatious or vain.
