This past Wednesday, students and staff celebrated a combination of 14 different cultural holidays at the first Festival of Lights.

The program, sponsored by Binghamton University’s Multicultural Resource Center, consisted of presentations, food and music from a variety of cultures.

According to Jared Kirschenbaum, executive vice president of the Student Association, there were five presentations based on a number of holidays, including Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa and Eid.

Kirschenbaum added that the theme of lights was used because light is a commonality among all of the holidays. Each holiday uses light as a symbol for the end to wars, the spread of peace and encouraging prosperity.

“It was a great program to bring all these cultures together. Even [BU’s] President [Lois] DeFleur was in attendance,” Kirschenbaum said.

Ricky DaCosta, vice president for multicultural affairs, echoed Kirschenbaum’s statements.

“This gave us a good blueprint for how we can do things in the future,” he said “There is certainly an opportunity for us to do this in the future.”