Banal beginning to ceremony (5)
I believe the answer is:
trite
'banal' is the definition.
(I know that banal can be written as trite)
'beginning to ceremony' is the wordplay.
'beginning' indicates taking the first letters.
'ceremony' becomes 'rite' (rite is a kind of ceremony).
The first letter of 'to' is 't'.
't'+'rite'='TRITE'
(Other definitions for trite that I've seen before include "(Of an idea) lacking in originality" , "used till novelty's worn off" , "Lyre string" , "Overfamiliar through overuse" , "repeated too often" .)