What's Kartini's Day?
It's a day where we celebrate the success of Raden Ajeng Kartini fighting for woman's right back in the old days. Because of her, now, all the women in Indonesia can have the opportunity to study in schools, women can work, women can stand up for themselves. Because of her, women in Indonesia is seen equal as men, have the same opportunities as men in every aspect of life.
Back in the days, the only thing women can do is stay at home. Those who are married had to stay at home, clean the house, cook for their husband and children. Men were the only one who are allowed to go to school and work.
Kartini thought it was stupid that only men got the chance to learn. She wants the women of Indonesia to be educated too. That is when she started her cause.
She really is a great hero. Because of her I can be here in New Zealand, studying culinary arts. :)
I remember when I was in primary school, we used to celebrate Kartini's day with competitions. The most popular competition was cosplay wearing Indonesian traditional clothes. Different places in Indonesia have their own traditional clothing, so there are many choices.
Here are some of the traditional clothing of Indonesia.
I usually dressed up as a girl from Sumatra Barat, because it is where my mom's hometown is. It's the one on the bottom left corner on the picture. I had to wear that giant hat that is suppose to resemble the horns of a buffalo.
My Indonesian friend who is studying here in New Zealand too reminded me about this day. Thank you, Mbak Dwi!
I suddenly remembered about one thing that I did on Kartini's day back when I was in the first grade. I posted about this a few months ago, but it was in Indonesian and the pictures were missing, so, I am going to write it again in English.
As usual, there was the traditional clothing cosplay. I can't remember what I wore that day; might be Sumatra Barat or Betawi.
Anyways, I've finished cosplaying and I went back into my classroom. My teacher was there and she told me to wait for the others. She gave me a piece of paper and a pencil and told me to draw Kartini while waiting. And so I drew her.
When I finished drawing and colouring my Kartini, I presented my piece of art to the teacher. She laughed... out... loud... LITERALLY LOLed. I was surprised. Why did she laughed at my drawing? Did I do something wrong?? She took another look at my drawing and laugh again. She did not tell me why. I brought my drawing home.
When I got home, I told my mom about how my teacher laughed at my drawing. She asked me if she could see what I drew, I gave her the drawing. SHE LAUGHED TOO.
And I stood silently wondering what I did wrong.
Finally, my mom told me after she finished her epic laugh.
"Nia, how many fingers do people have?" She asked.
I was not sure. I couldn't answer.
She asked for my hands and told me to count how many fingers I have.
"Ten," I said.
Then she showed me her fingers and told me to count them too. She has ten fingers too (duh!).
"Normal people have ten fingers, Nia," She said. "No wonder your teacher laughed at your drawing. You drew Kartini with more than 20 fingers!"
oops.
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