This is the third year of the increasingly popular experience that incorporates sound, art, and light for 11 performances in the historic graveyard, concluding on Saturday, the day of the winter solstice.
"I guess there's a spectrum of light shows," says Matthew Stephens, chief executive officer of Mt. Auburn Cemetery. "There's Santa Claus and the reindeer on one end. I'd suggest (this) is on the very opposite end."
The incorporation of lighting, original music, and projection art, created by MASARY Studios, marries the old and the new. "The Eclipse" is a wildly creative interstellar installation that looks more Captain Kirk than Cambridge.
The artists say its a 12-foot diameter black disc ringed with an LED light and a backlight that are anchored to trees. Fog, a sand/golden colored light, and pumped in ethereal sound intensify the Eclipse experience.
Other installations are equally impressive. There's a projection light installation on the front of Bigelow Chapel, a 150-plus-year-old Gothic structure that uses the multispired chapel as a massive canvas for an explosion of colors and lights.
Inside, it is bathed in purple lights and the sounds of a live violinist and cellist playing healing compositions such as "Greensleeves." Guests silently place candles at the front.
Elise Counsell lights the wicks for them, one at a time. The cemetery has hosted a candlelight ceremony for the last 30 years.
"It's somber, but there's also a peace to it. It's very calm. I think people are honestly happy to have a break from the cold and the darkness. It's nice. I think it gives people a break and allows them to be still and to be together. They pray for loved ones, to stop war, for a healthy New Year, all of that combined."
Phyllis Thompson of Newton says she is lighting her candle for the hopes she has for her 12-year-old twins, who accompany her.
"This is splendid," she says. "I think all of us are fascinated by all the technological choices, by how much thinking and plotting must have gone into imagining how it would manifest at night. All of it seems so mindful that we keep being taken aback because you're looking also at these artworks of the memorials that have been here for hundreds of years."
Mt. Auburn, which dates back to 1831, is considered America's first garden cemetery, known as much for its wide pathways and towering trees. It prides itself on welcoming the living and the dead.
A total of 16,000 guests will have visited the soldout experience presented by the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery. The vibe is serene here at the resting place for 100,000 souls.
"They're a very quiet constituency in general," says Stephens with a wry smile.
There's also a year-round opportunity to get within six feet of some famous people. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gave Mt. Auburn a rave review shortly before his death in 1882.
"Yesterday, I was at Mount Auburn, and saw my own grave dug ... my own tomb. I assure you, I looked quietly down into it, without one feeling of dread. It is a beautiful spot," the poet wrote.
Mt. Auburn was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. It's worth a visit just to pay respects to those that are resting here,
Sportscaster Curt Gowdy, who made the call of Ted Williams last-at-bat homer has made this his final resting spot. Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid Land Camera, artist Winslow Homer, and Isabella Stewart Gardner all reside here.
By the way, Isabella would really appreciate having her paintings returned. It's also worth a stop to see the poet Robert Creeley, whose epitaph is written one word per line on his tombstone.
"Look at the light of this hour," it says. To appreciate the present moment is good advice for the living.
The cemetery is open yearround and admission and parking is free.
"It's not a park. It's still a cemetery," says Stephens. "But it's a place that people can take a reflective walk, look at our 200-year-old oak trees and be inspired, or have a butterfly land on their shoulder and think, all right, well, life is beautiful or that's like Uncle Ted."
Whether the place is haunted or not remains a mystery.