Celebrating 'SOLSTICE' at Mount Auburn Cemetery

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Mount Auburn Cemetery is once again fulfilling a primal need as we approach the longest night of the year. “SOLSTICE: Reflections on Winter Light” is an immersive, outdoor celebration that unfolds in the December darkness we all share. For many (including this reporter), the cosmic, often hard-to-describe experience has become a must-see seasonal tradition. According to the cemetery, 11,000 people attended the event during its two-week run last year.

If you’ve never been, picture packs of bundled-up visitors descending on Mount Auburn after sunset. It’s a rare experience to be allowed inside a cemetery at night. All are invited to peacefully reflect as they wander along paths between kaleidoscopic outdoor projections,  candlelit music performances in Bigelow Chapel, and illuminated trees and memorials. The awe-inspiring light and sound installations activate the gothic architecture, landscape and peaceful spirit of the cemetery. Each piece is conceived and conjured by the Boston-based new media arts collective MASARY Studios.

Earlier this year, I had the chance to get a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at what MASARY’s artists had up their sleeves for this year’s iteration. I visited the studio to interview design director Caleb Hawkins for The Makers, our annual series highlighting local creatives of color. He described how he crafted the elegant fan favorite known as “Eclipse.”

“It’s a 12-foot diameter ring enclosed in black, light-blocking fabric with an LED strip around its outside,” he said. “It just needs to be a perfect ring of light.”

The piece appears to hover in space just above the ground. Hazy fog and ethereal music add to its stirring effect. Each year, Hawkins stitches the light strip with fishing line to create the illusion of totality. The goal is to “capture the magnitude of the solar system and…[the] relationship between the self, of the person, within the cosmos.” He said he feels this connection. As it turns out, his birthday is the actual winter solstice on Dec. 21.

“Eclipse” has moved to a different location for this year’s “SOLSTICE.” As part of the event’s ongoing evolution, a new light piece has taken the totality’s place in the grassy alcove known as Hazel Dell. At MASARY this summer, I witnessed Hawkins and his colleagues problem-solving the execution of this debuting work titled “Stillness.” He described it as “an undulating field of light that embraces the landscape of the Dell.”

The area has a slight incline with a path around the back that's lined with mausoleums, bushes and shrubs. In the end — and without pulling back the curtain too far — the MASARY team engineered dark, slender columns to support 1,192 baseball-sized lights that fill the space, along with an accompanying soundscape.

MASARY reimagined other recurring installations for this year's “SOLSTICE,” including the projection-mapped pieces that light up the historic Bigelow Chapel’s facade. There’s something both comforting and gobsmacking about watching the historic structure being bathed in colorful, kinetic light. Standing in the cold dark with others, a hushed feeling envelopes the body, and you can’t help but pause and ponder a reset for the coming new year.

Other additions include an extended lantern walk and a communal reading of “We Remember Them,” a poem by Sylvan Kamens and Rabbi Jack Riemer, inside the cemetery’s Story Chapel. A craft beverage pavilion is up and running with wine and a special new “SOLSTICE” beer from the husband-and-wife-owned brewery Small Change. Ovenbird Cafe is handling food and warm non-alcoholic drinks.

This year, parking will be off-site rather than on the cemetery’s grounds. It’s a five-minute walk from the main entrance gate on Mount Auburn Street.

“SOLSTICE: Reflections on Winter Light” will light up the cemetery through Saturday, Dec. 21.

P.S. Exciting news! ARTery newsletter subscribers have a chance to win tickets to "SOLSTICE." Two winners will be selected on Dec. 13. Know someone who hasn't signed up for this newsletter yet? Send them here.