 That parade was held as breaking news spread across Washington, D.C. and the rest of the nation that the 52 American hostages held in Iran for the previous 444 days had been released.A tradition of a national prayer service, usually the day after the inauguration, dates back to George Washington and since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the prayer service has been held at the Washington National Cathedral.This is not the same as the Inaugural Prayer, a tradition also begun by Washington, when on June 1, 1789, Methodist Bishops Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke, Rev.