CELEBRITY
Serena Williams said Nobody wished my daughter Olympia a happy birthday today…
A baby’s first birthday is a huge milestone for any family, however, everybody marks the occasion in their own way. At a Saturday press conference surrounding the U.S. Open, Serena Williams revealed that she and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, aren’t planning a big party for their daughter Olympia Ohanian’s first birthday. The 36-year-old tennis superstar explained that they were opting out of birthday celebration for Olympia because of their religious beliefs.
“Olympia doesn’t celebrate birthdays,” Serena said at the press conference. “We’re Jehovah’s Witnesses so we don’t do that.”
According to the religion’s official website JW.org, Jehovah’s Witnesses choose not to celebrate birthdays “because we believe that such celebrations displease God.” While the Bible “does not explicitly forbid birthdays, it does help us…understand God’s view of them.” The site gives four reasons for believing God is displeased by birthdays, including “the Bible never refers to a servant of God celebrating a birthday” and their belief that birthdays have pagan roots.
