Author: Christina Loridas

All Hallow’s Eve

Christina Loridas Travel

BOSTON–This fall, appreciate more than just the carved pumpkins and cotton spider webs—by learning the origins of the holiday we have come to know as Halloween.

Halloween is traced back to the ancient religion of the Celtic in Ireland, to a festival known as Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest season in the Gaelic culture. When Christianity spread to different parts of Europe, faithful worshippers tried to introduce ideas which reflected a more Christian mindset. As a result, Halloween has evolved into a combination of practices taken from both pagan and Christian traditions.jack-o-lanterns.jpgAs Christianity spread into Ireland and the surrounding Celtic lands in the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV established All Saints’ Day. It was intended to replace the pagan tradition of honoring the dead with honoring saints and martyrs and was originally celebrated on May 13. In 834 A.D., Gregory III moved All Saints Day from May 13 to November 1. For Christians, this became an opportunity for venerating all of the saints and holy ones who had passed on. October 31 became All Hallows’ Eve, ‘hallow’ meaning saint. Continue reading →

Body image: what have we become?

Christina Loridas Opinion

Fifteen percent of young women adopt unhealthy attitudes and behaviors concerning food, a risk three times higher in women than in men according to statistics provided by Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc. Their research also suggests that four out of 100 college-aged women have bulimia, while more than 10 percent of adolescent girls binge eat or purge at least once a week.

How did we as a nation arrive at these startling facts? In a world where appearance is everything, many people struggle daily with body image and the obsession and conquest for the “perfect” body. Young women compare themselves to others and want to be better, skinnier, prettier, only to make themselves feel superior. Continue reading →

Lauren Conrad’s designs take Boston by storm

Christina Loridas Fashion, Art & Culture, Reviews
It’s not easy being only 22 years old, having a hit TV show, a fashion line, and millions of girls screaming your name–just ask Lauren Conrad.
 

BOSTON–The screams echo throughout the luxurious high-ceilinged foyer. Girls populate every visible corner, dancing and moving to the rhythm, together forming a blur of tiny black dresses and silk tops, lost in the music. It is Saturday night, Nov. 15, at The Estate, an elite and upper class club.laurenfashiontourminneapolis-3.jpgI can feel the excitement and anxiety in the air as hundreds of girls anxiously watch the stage waiting for the show to begin. Lauren Conrad’s newest line of clothing was to premiere at 9 p.m.

But perhaps the audience is not just hoping for the show to start, but also to catch a glimpse of Conrad, the biggest “it” girl in entertainment today. Continue reading →

How far would you go?

Christina Loridas Features

BOSTON–For 18 years, families in Gulu, Uganda have lived in terror—only now is their story being told.

After college or graduate school, most young people live at home for a year or try to establish a career in the trade in which they majored. The volunteers of the non-profit organization, Invisible Children, instead travel the country living in a van, visiting various colleges to screen their documentary film GO, and getting the word out about the atrocities in Uganda.ivisible-children.jpg

On Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008, recent graduates from all over the world visited Boston University to promote Invisible Children. The name comes from children secretly escaping capture by rebels that force them into the corrupt Joseph Kony’s military regime.

For the past 23 years, the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have been fighting in a war that has left close to two million innocent civilians caught in the middle. Continue reading →