1) Advent 2) Beginning 3) Birth 4) Debut 5) Establishment 6) Founding 7) Inauguration 8) Inception 9) Incipience 10) Incipiency 11) Installation 12) Installing 13) Instauration 14) Kickoff 15) Offset 16) Onset 17) Outset 18) Recommencement 19) Resumption 20) Rite 21) Scrum 22) Scrummage 23) Showtime 1) Beginning 2) First 3) French word used in English 4) Get-go 5) Graduation ceremony 6) Kickoff 7) Offset 8) Outset 9) Point 10) Point in time 11) Showtime 12) Start 13) Starting time 14) The act of starting something 
• (n.) The day when degrees are conferred by colleges and universities upon students and others. • (n.) The first existence of anything; act or fact of commencing; rise; origin; beginning; start.
Graduation ceremony, usually held in May or June at the end of the academic year.
Com·mence'ment noun [ French commencement .] 1. The first existence of anything; act or fact of commencing; rise; origin; beginning; start. « The time of Henry VII. . . . nearly coincides with the commencement of what is termed 'modern history.' Hallam. » ...
[n] - an academic exercise in which diplomas are conferred
commencement ceremony noun an academic exercise in which diplomas are conferred
an act or instance of commencing; beginning: the commencement of hostilities. · the ceremony of conferring degrees or granting diplomas at the end of the academic year. · the day on which this ceremony takes place.
an academic exercise in which diplomas are conferred the act of starting something