Kartini Day celebrates the life and achievements of Kartini who is widely-regarded as being instrumental in the women's emancipation movement in Indonesia and is a scholl holiday throughout Indonesia. Born in the village of Mayong in 1879, she was the daughter of the local mayor and received a good education in Holland up to the age of 12 after which, following the pinjit tradition for girls, she returned home and waited to be married. Over the next 12 years she wrote many letters to her friends in Holland which were later published as the 'Letters of a Javanese Princess'. When she was 24, she followed Pinjit tradition and married a local mayor who was many years her senior and already had several wives and many children, thus giving up her own dreams of further education in Europe and a career of her own. But she did set up a special girl's school and went on to raise awareness about women's rights in Indonesia. Each year the day is marked with special celebrations, exhibitions and cultural performances.
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