On Feb. 22, the Chocolate Church Arts Center and Main Street Bath will put on its Annual Lantern Parade and Free Concert. After a fun day of Winterfest Activities, residents and visitors of the Bath Community will gather at 6 p.m. at the parking lot of Five County Federal Credit Union, 765 Washington St., for a community procession that winds around downtown and arrives at Bath’s historic Chocolate Church. Main Street Bath will hand out 40 pre-decorated paper lanterns with internal LED lights for those who may have come without. And the CCAC invites folks to come to its Art Lab for a free lantern-making workshop earlier in the day. We do all this because, believe it or not, in my humble opinion, pageantry is nothing short of profound.
May Day is beloved in England because it connects people to nature, history and each other. With Mardi Gras, there is a taking over of the public space with people, music, creativity and, most of all, togetherness. Similarly, Bath’s Lantern Parade is a ritual of reunion. We emerge from our wintering as a community. Everyone is invited to participate. Everyone moves together. Everyone carries light. And for a brief moment, we are side by side at this moment in a sort of communion. Our spirit infects these spaces with something more than ordinary — extraordinary and beautiful — and before our eyes, the city reveals some of its more magical potentials.
I write all this as a passionate invitation to find yourself at the CCAC on Feb. 22, first between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to make a lantern or costume of your choice and then at 6 p.m. to parade in community, culminating with a big, free concert of New Orleans music by the Ideal Maine Band. There will be music, lantern processing and dancing across the stage, and free hot cider all offered in our sanctuary space built by Bath citizens in 1847 for such journeys of the spirit. Come be a part of our collective turning towards the light, towards warmer days and towards traditions that continue to enchant generation after generation. This is the time to gather together to be imaginative in our bodies. It is an act of faith.
Matthew Glassman is executive and artistic director at the Chocolate Church Arts Center.
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