Thanksgiving is one of the most anticipated holidays by people including celebrities. Who wouldn’t love spending time with family and friends while having some good meals? But apparently, there are some people who don’t.
For multiple reasons, there are some celebrities who have publicly denounced Thanksgiving. Some of them think that the reason behind the holiday is not something to celebrate, while some others liken the festivity to the massacre. Meanwhile, there are some who simply don’t like the food.
With this year’s Thanksgiving is just around the corner, check out the list of the stars who likely will not celebrate it and find out why they do so.
Cher
Cher
WENN
Cher has always been known as an outspoken public figure. She doesn’t hesitate to voice her opinion about things on social media, including sharing why she is against Thanksgiving and it has something to do with the fact that its emergence is from the genocide of Native Americans.
Back in 2013, the music icon responded to a fan’s question on Twitter about why she didn’t celebrate the holiday. “4 me & my Family, it’s a day, When every1 is free 4Diner & a movie, Not 2 celebrate the beginning of a GREAT crime,” she wrote, before elaborating, “Stealing Land, from a ppl, Who believed, Owning LAND Was LIke Owning SKY! We gave them Blankets laced w/Smallpox.”
Rowan Blanchard
Rowan Blanchard
WENN/Instar
Author, activist and former Disney star Rowan Blanchard has long been proven wise beyond her years. However, she apparently doesn’t have nice words for Thanksgiving which she previously referred to as “strange, state-sanctioned annual celebration of colonial genocide” in one of her Instagram posts. In 2017, the star took to her account to encourage “white people” to donate to The Navajo Water Project instead of celebrating the holiday in the usual way.
She explained in the post that giving back to people “who this ‘holiday’ implicates and triggers institutionalized violence for” was “one way of us to start paying very basic, owed reparations for the millions of ways we implicate systematic violence against PoC every day, with or without knowledge of doing so.” She went on saying, “a reminder that America as we know it is stolen land, ‘founded’ by white settlers who stole from, killed, and raped Native Americans.”
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
WENN/Mario Mitsis
Angelina Jolie has a big family and fans might think she would spend Thanksgiving by having dinner and gorging on turkey while telling each other what they are thankful for. However, the “Maleficent” actress, who is known for her charity work, especially in helping people of other cultures and ethnicities, is allegedly not among those people who are excited about the holiday.
According to a source, the actress “hates this holiday and wants no part in rewriting history like so many other Americans. To celebrate what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another just isn’t her style. She definitely doesn’t want to teach her multi-cultural family how to celebrate a story of murder.” It is said that Angelina often takes her kids on a trip out of the country during the holiday so that they aren’t exposed to the tradition.
Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman
WENN/Instar
Also, not a fan of the holiday is Sarah Silverman, who has made headlines as an outspoken critic of American culture for years. The stand-up comedian often uses her wit to criticize America’s relationship to Thanksgiving and how the festivity means the killing of thousands of turkeys.
“The turkey we kill is a symbol of the Native Americans we killed,” Sarah could be heard narrating a video she posted on Facebook for Thanksgiving special. She continued sarcastically, “We’re so grateful for the farming techniques that they taught us, as we learned to harvest our own food on the land we took. We are giving thanks for being American. God bless America and its greedy self righteous heritage.”
Shailene Woodley
Shailene Woodley
WENN/Avalon
Actress Shailene Woodley has always been showing her support for Native American communities and that unsurprisingly makes her against celebrating Thanksgiving. In addition to joining solidarity to block the North Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota that led to her arrest back in October 2016, the actress doesn’t hesitate to publicly denounce the holiday in interviews in an attempt to boycott the national holiday.
Speaking to TYT Politics, the actress said, “Thanksgiving was founded on a massacre. From the time we’re little kids, we cut out cardboard paper pictures of pilgrims and feasts and turkeys, and yet none of our children know the truth about not only what happened to Native Americans when Westerners decided to colonize this country, but what is still happening to Native Americans.”
Mayim Bialik
Mayim Bialik
WENN/Avalon
Mayim Bialik has some strong opinions about Thanksgiving and she has several reasons for it. “The Big Bang Theory” alum explained that one of the reasons she didn’t like Thanksgiving was because she’s a vegan and is against killing innocent animals such as turkeys. “I don’t like the tradition of killing a bird that in most cases has been genetically modified so that it’s so big that it can’t even stand up and then you lay its carcass on a tray and you carve it up and then you eat it. I don’t like that tradition,” she revealed in a 2017 YouTube video which was titled “4 Reasons I Don’t Like Thanksgiving.”
She also mentioned that she didn’t like that people use this holiday as an excuse to eat too much food and that the holiday had similarities with Jewish holiday Sukkot, which is a harvest festival with plenty of food. Mayim touched genocide in her last reasoning. “The truth is, European invaders came to this land, took it from the indigenous people, raped, pillaged, gave them all sorts of diseases, called it their own, and desecrated a culture. It is one of the grossest examples of genocide in recent history and much as I don’t want to think about that, it’s really hard for me not to think about that when I think about Thanksgiving,” the actress said.
Alicia Silverstone
Alicia Silverstone
WENN/Joseph Marzullo
Being a vegan, Alicia Silverstone is also among celebrities who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. She makes her stance known by publicly denouncing the holiday, which she seems to have re-christened “save the turkey day,” on social media posts.
In 2016, she took to her Instagram account to share a couple of snapshots of a lamb nuzzling a sheep to mark the holiday. “Approximately 46 MILLION of these sweet beings are slaughtered for #thanksgiving each year!” she captioned the post, before encouraging her followers to “give thanks without centering the holiday around the body of someone that didn’t want, or deserve, to die.” She also noted that there were “many insane delicious alternatives to turkey.”
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
WENN/Ivan Nikolov
Jon Stewart is known for his satirical jokes and he uses it to express his dislike towards Thanksgiving. During one of the episodes of his “Daily Show”, the comedian mocked the true reason why people started to celebrate Thanksgiving in the first place.
“I celebrate Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way,” he told the audience on his Comedy Central show. Referring to the fact that the celebration was founded after Westerners colonized America and killed Native Americans, Jon continued joking, “I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast and then I killed them and took their land.”
In a recent chat with popular media personality, Chude Jideonwo, Iyanya stated that many of his colleagues are depressed, but are pretending to be happy and fulfilled online.
Prior to this, Iyanya had earlier opened up about his difficulties in a series of Twitter posts.
The ‘Kukere’ crooner recounted his struggles to land shows in December 2021, and how he even had to beg to perform at shows just to get visibility.
In recounting his struggles and return to the spotlight in the chat with Chude, the singer stated that his tweets inspired many people.
“It is the reality of the game, you know. When you are out for a while coming back is even harder. Most people don’t even come back. When you come back like that you have to let people know that sharing our stories inspires so many people.
“So many people reached out to me to say ‘thank you for that tweet you made. You’ve inspired me,” he said.
Iyanya further expressed how difficult it is for most Nigerian musicians, and how they create a facade to hide their struggles.
“A lot [of musicians are depressed]. A whole lot. The people who you see out there making you feel like things is good, they are the ones going through worst things. So, they try to make you feel like they are right. People are going through a lot. So, you have to be vulnerable with your experiences,” he added.
Nigerian superstar Davido treated himself to a new luxurious ride by splashing millions of naira on a brand-new Lamborghini. The 30 BG Boss had been absent from social media for a few months following the tragic loss of his son, Ifeanyi. However, he made a comeback a few days ago, which caused a stir among his fans and loved ones.
Upon his return, Davido surprised many by deleting over 4,000 photos on his social media page, leaving only four. Fans and industry insiders speculated that his comeback was to announce the release of his new album, and their hunch proved to be right as Davido has officially announced the release of his new album, which is set to drop on the 31st of March.
But that’s not all! The Nigerian singer has also reportedly splurged on a brand new Lamborghini. The flashy car, which is known for its sleek design and high-performance capabilities, has been making rounds on social media.
Coming from the depths of Lagos/Ogun State, Nigeria and making name for himself for quite some time, Dolly HP has established himself as one of the viable acts that’s been grinding at a high level.
After coming off the successful release of his project, “The Grace Arrived” and receiving love from his fans, he looks to make even more of a bigger impact with his next Album labelled “Don’t Come Late”
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