Alastar Dimitrie

Ribbon and oversized scissors are essential pieces of chamber of commerce equipment.

At the Greater Ishpeming-Negaunee Area Chamber of Commerce, we put our scissors to good use. Our most recent ribbon cutting was on Friday at West End Ski & Trail in Ishpeming. We’ve held ribbon cuttings outdoors and indoors, in fair weather and in foul. We once brought a ribbon-cutting to a business owner’s residence.

I always enjoy a ribbon-cutting day, and not just because it’s an opportunity to get out of the office. It’s inspiring to see all of the hard work that goes into starting a business being acknowledged. Someone had an idea and through many hours, weeks and sometimes years of toil, that idea became a reality.

Nevertheless, it’s a curious sort of ritual. Having degrees in anthropology and acting, probably makes me extra aware of the ceremony and theatricality of it. How did the ribbon-cutting come to be?

A quick Google search has revealed some possible clues. While none of my sources could be described as scholarly, they provide some plausible explanations.

The cutting of ribbons has long been a tradition in several European countries. In France, the groom would cut a ribbon stretched across the road on the way to church. In Italy, the bride or bride’s father would cut a ribbon across the door of the marital home.

The tradition seems to have first emerged in a business context in the late nineteenth century. One of the first documented ribbon cuttings occurred in Louisiana in 1898 to mark the completion of a railroad line.

The transcontinental railroad had been completed with a golden spike in 1869. In 1890, the USS Maine was christened with a bottle of champagne broken across her bow. People were finding all sorts of theatrical ways to mark these momentous occasions. It’s not hard to see how ribbon cuttings would have caught on.

It’s an elegantly simple gesture to mark the beginning of something new. The openings of the Disneyland Monorail in 1959 and the World Trade Center in 1973 are two examples of high-profile ribbon cuttings from the last century.

As is the case with most chambers, we usually host our ribbon cuttings at the start of a new business or a few days or months after the soft opening. We’ll also hold ribbon cuttings for businesses that are new GINCC members regardless of how long they’ve been in operation.

We’ll take some photos of the event and invite the media just as they did when they hammered in the golden spike. We can’t guarantee that the moment will be written into history books like the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Still, it should generate some publicity and is a way for us to acknowledge an important new addition to our West End business community.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Alastar Dimitrie is the Marketing & Events Coordinator at the GINCC. He currently resides in Marquette with his partner Kaitlyn and their cat family. He enjoys hiking, painting, reading and recipes involving rhubarb.