With portraits of city pols of the past looking on the Cambridge City Council carried out the biannual task of inauguration in a traditional ceremony yesterday at City Hall.

It was a day when the business of running the city gave way to pomp and circumstance. One by one, the nine councilors elected two months ago took the oath of office at the rostrum in the council chamber, while friends, relatives and various appointed officials watched.

Many of them wore tuxedos. The men sported while carnation boutonniere, the women orchid corsages.

The entire ceremony followed the dictates of section 97 of the city charter. It was the 22nd inauguration under Cambridge's Plan 'E' which calls for a 10 a.m. meeting on the first Monday in January.

City Clerk Paul E. Healy took his 12th turn as presiding officer, introducing the participants and administering the oaths. "The only reason we have this ceremony is because they come up one at a time," he said jokingly. "Sometimes I wish we could swear them in all at once."

The charter calls for the new councilors to select a mayor, but the eight incumbents and one new member failed to make the choice and recessed until their first regular meeting next Monday afternoon [see story, Page One].

Alice K. Wolf was the only new councilor sworn in. "Everything went as expected," she said after the ceremony. "It was very dignified."

Each of the councilors was escorted by an usher, either a relatives or a friend. Councilor Walter J. Sullivan, who began his 13th term, had an honor guard of four grandchildren, which caused 14-tern incumbent Alfred E. Vellucci to remark. "I thought seriously of bringing my grandchildren. Mr. Chairman, but there are 33 of them."

Although speeches are not officially part of the event. Rabbi Daniel Shevitz of the MIT Hillel used his part of the benediction to offer the nine officials some advice from Scripture. The passage he read recalled that God sits in the deliberations of public servants. "I ask the councilors to remember who they serve," Shevitz said.

The inaugural exercises were only the start of the day's activities. Area businesses continued the tradition of providing a continental breakfast at the ceremony an inauguration dinner and a formal ball at the Sheraton Commander Hotel to found out the evening.