Mount Auburn Cemetery opens its “Solstice: Reflections on Winter Light” experience this weekend.
Created in partnership with Masary Studios, which make site-specific installations with sound, light, interactivity and performance, Solstice includes a series of artworks that combine art, remembrance and nature. They’re meant to honor peaceful reflection that can come with the winter solstice, a day that has long been celebrated at Mount Auburn.
“About 30 years ago on the true solstice, Mount Auburn held a candle-lighting ceremony for the community, welcoming about 100 people into one of our chapels,” said the cemetery’s president and chief executive, Matthew Stephens.
Solstice is the evolved version of that annual ceremony, having been reimagined in 2020 to include Masary. This year’s “Solstice” will include three newly commissioned artworks. Two of them, “Sweet Auburn” and “Cosmic Breath,” are projection-mapped installations on the historic Bigelow Chapel.
“‘Sweet Auburn’ is a kind of a poem that alludes to the nature of Mount Auburn and how it shows us the inevitable changes and cycles that also take place in our own lives,” said Masary Studios co-founder and principal Sam Okerstrom-Lang. “‘Cosmic Breath’ is a very meditative, celestial piece that references our place in time with the winter eclipse.”
The third, called “In Stillness,” is an interactive installation of more than 1,000 lights in Hazel Dell.
“I think the Mount Auburn landscape and monuments hold this space to slow down, to grieve, to meditate, and this gesture of stillness is something we’ve studied to register in this vast, beautiful dell,” Okerstrom-Lang said. More than 1,000 lights are “installed to mirror to the topography of this location,” Okerstrom-Lang said.
Masary has also brought back installations from years past, including the “Hortus Gateway” and “Eclipse.”
“‘Eclipse’ is one of the community favorites, it’s a 12-foot installation with sound and light and haze and it’s reminiscent of an actual solar eclipse,” Okerstrom-Lang said.
There will also be an extended Lantern Walk, providing an additional opportunity to wander the illuminated grounds.
Solstice is open Saturday through Dec. 21, with tickets available online for select dates within that range. Food and beverages will be available for purchase from Ovenbird Cafe and Small Change Brewing.
The goal of the event, beyond bringing people together on the darkest day of the year, Stephens said, is to bring attention to Mount Auburn as a community space that’s open to the public.
“It allows people to see Mount Auburn in a new light, both literally and figuratively,” Stephens said, noting that people often write it off as “just a cemetery” or “just something they drive by.”
Last year, Solstice just about sold out before it opened, hosting about 12,000 attendees. This year, Stephens said, it’s on track to do the same, despite offering 40 percent more tickets this year than last year.
“We’ll probably welcome close to 20,000 people,” Stephens said. “All signs suggest that the community appreciates this event. We’ll continue to grow it as much as we can. We are an active cemetery, so that can get tricky, but we love having people here.”
It’s part of a push that will bring a series of new sorts of events to Mount Auburn this year.
“We’re starting to curate programming ranging from nature walks to music performances to movie nights as a way to activate this special space in a thoughtful but different way,” Stephens said.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.