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25/10/13
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ZEITGEIST
5
things to do in November
Remember
Shop, tarry or avoid
Stop all the clocks. . . At the 11th hour on the 11th day, in the 11th month the guns ceased firing on the Western Front but the First World War still casts a shadow as we pause each Remembrance Day to pay our respects to the dead of all wars. This year’s Mayor of Bath wreath laying takes place at the city war memorial in Royal Victoria Park at 11am on Sunday 10 November. Bathonians are welcome to gather outside the Guildhall at 2.30pm that day for the annual Royal British Legion Remembrance Sunday parade which will process to the Abbey for a service at 3pm. At war memorials across Bath and the surrounding towns and villages people will gather and offer up two minutes’ silence as a tiny gesture for those who died.
We know that Bath is divided when it comes to the annual Christmas Market – it’s a Marmite thing that you either love because it’s packed with gorgeous festive treats, or loathe because it clogs up the city centre with crowds of visiting shoppers – but whatever your view, you’ll want to know that this year it runs from Thursday 28 November to Sunday 15 December. There’ll be more than 150 little wooden huts for you to browse among. Our recommendation is that you start your shopping trip with a cup of warming mulled wine and a relaxed attitude. For your diary: The City of Bath Bach Choir is hosting three nights of traditional and modern carols by candlelight in the Pump Room, from Wednesday 18 – Friday 20 December and there will be shoppers’ carol services at Bath Abbey to lift the spirits of weary shoppers every Saturday from 30 November to 14 December.
Light up Celebrate light at the darkest time of the year and watch a procession of more than 400 children take part in the Holburne Museum’s annual lantern procession on Thursday 28 November. The parade will make its way through the city with the children carrying their hand decorated lanterns, making it a wonderful spectacle. A note for your diary: There’ll be performance of colour, light and sound with the Light to Light display at the Holburne Museum, from 4 December – 5 January. Lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, who has produced lighting displays for The Rolling Stones, Take That and the London Olympic Games ceremonies and brings his display of LED lights to the Holburne Museum garden. 10 THEBATHMAGAZINE
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NOVEMBER 2013
Enjoy If, like us, you were somewhere wedged in the crowds that filled Milsom Street for the switch-on of the Christmas lights last year, you’ll know this is a hugely popular event attracting thousands of people. Expect a massive cheer to go out on Tuesday 12 November when Bath born Queen of Cakes, Mary Berry returns to her home city to switch on the lights. The fun starts at 5.30pm with some community entertainment, before the official switching on ceremony at 6.15 – 6.30pm. The chief judge of the hugely successful BBC series The Great British Bake Off recently released her autobiography Recipe for Life, which we reckon will find its way under many a Bath Christmas tree this year.
Watch
For anyone who has ever sat in a mainstream cinema with the words asanine and banal going round in their heads, this monthʼs Bath Film Festival will be a blessed relief. Opening on Monday 25 November with a screening of the 1928 classic The Passion of Joan of Arc, the festival brings us films that are thought provoking, entertaining, subversive, funny, intelligent and above all different from the run of the mill. Pictured is Gemma Arterton in Byzantium – turn to Page 24 for some film fest highlights.