A commenter pointed out that I translated the word Hadran as both splendor and return. To explain this, I post from the Insights to the Daf to Sukkah 45
AGADAH: "BEAUTY IS YOURS, O MIZBE'ACH!"
The Mishnah relates that at the end of the festival, the people took leave of the Beis ha'Mikdash and declared, "Yofi Lecha, Mizbe'ach! Yofi Lecha, Mizbe'ach!" -- "Beauty is yours, Mizbe'ach! Beauty is yours, Mizbe'ach!"
RAV REUVEN MARGOLIYOS (end of NITZOTZEI OR) explains that the meaning of this declaration can be understood based on the meaning of the "Hadran" recited upon the completion of a Maseches. According to some commentators (see Sefer ha'Chayim, ch. 3), the words "Hadran Alach" mean not only that "we shall return to (review) you." The words "Hadran Alach" also mean that "our Hadar, or splendor, comes from you." When we complete a Maseches, we declare that we attained splendor through the completion of the Maseches as a result of the splendor of the Torah that Hash-m instilled in the Maseches.
Similarly, when the people completed the Avodah on Sukos, a festival full of exhilarating Simchah and splendor, they declared that they attained splendor through honoring the Mizbe'ach (and the Korbanos brought upon it) which is the vehicle through which Hash-m provides atonement for the sins of the people.
Rav Margoliyos points out another allusion to the declaration mentioned in the Gemara here. The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah (31a) discusses how the Aliyos of the Torah reading of Parshas Ha'azinu are divided. The Gemara gives a mnemonic for the division of the Aliyos, which is comprised of the first letter of the beginning of each paragraph in the Parshah: "ha'Ziv Lach" (H, Z, Y, V, L, CH). The division of the final weekly reading of the Torah into these paragraphs, which form a mnemonic of "ha'Ziv Lach," alludes to our desire to express our joy as we finish the Torah. We declare, "ha'Ziv Lach" -- "The splendor is yours," just as we declare upon the completion of a Maseches, "Hadran Alach." With this expression we acknowledge that we have merited to gain the splendor of the Torah through the weekly reading of the Torah.
The reason that I 'fudged' by using both translations at once was because of the difficulty with one of them. If hadran means splendor, what does the phrase "hadran alach" signify? Is it not presumptous to say, "our beauty shall be upon you, Tractate"?
Of course, that may be precisely the lesson. After we have engaged and struggled with the Mesekhta, some of the spiritual uplift and progress that we have made, is now shining upon it.
Rova said: "In the beginning Torah is named for the Holy One Blessed Be He and at the end it is called by his (student's) name, as it says, "in the Torah of Hashem is his desire and his (own) Torah he shall delve day and night" (A'Z 19a)
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