Levee (ceremony)
Morning reception held by a sovereign or other high-ranking person / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see levee (disambiguation).
The levee (from the French word lever, meaning "getting up" or "rising")[1] was traditionally a daily moment of intimacy and accessibility to a monarch or leader, as he got up in the morning. It started out as a royal custom, but in British America it came to refer to a reception by the sovereign's representative, which continues to be a tradition in Canada with the New Year's levee; in the United States a similar gathering was held by several presidents.