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any people, including pop singer Krisdayanti and her husband Raul Lemos, consider Dec. 12, 2012 a special date, which accounts for why Wednesday was marked by Caesarian sections and wedding ceremonies nationwide.

It is a date that comes around only once every 100 years, and Wednesday marked the end of a string of annual numerical repetitions for the 21st century. Such a triple date will not be seen again until Jan. 1, 2101, nearly 90 years from now.

Krisdayanti underwent a C-section on Wednesday at the Mitra Kemayoran Hospital in North Jakarta to have her second baby with Raul delivered — a boy named Kellen Alexander Lemos.

“Alhamdulillah [Thank God], our son was born at 9 a.m., 12-12-12, healthy, 3.590 kilograms,” Raul said as quoted by kompas.com.

“We chose the date because it is beautiful and easy to remember.”

In Pekanbaru, Riau Islands, 17 expectant mothers registered to have their babies delivered on the same date, mostly via C-sections, at the Andini Mother and Baby Hospital.

Widiawati, a nurse at the hospital, said all the patients opted for the date because they wanted to have the unique and easy-to-remember date on their babies’ birth certificates.

In Medan, North Sumatra, 12 babies were born on the same day at the Rosiva Hospital, 10 of them
being delivered by C-section.

“All the babies were on the due date to be born,” said Misrita, head of midwifery at the hospital.

In Klaten, Central Java, 26 babies were born on Wednesday in a number of hospitals either through C-sections or natural births.

 “I did not plan to give birth today. It’s just a coincidence that I had my baby on 12-12-12,” said Sarni, 31, one of the mothers who had a natural delivery.

Meanwhile, despite a usual mid-week lull due to people working, Wednesday saw scores of couples tying the know on the special date.

In Yogyakarta, 12 couples joined a free mass wedding ceremony on an old train at the Madukismo sugar factory in Kaishan, Bantul.

The ceremony was held at noon and was completed at 12:12 p.m. The dowry for each bride comprised Rp 12,000 (US$1.2) in cash and 12 kilograms of sugar. The ceremonies, which were held simultaneously, were led by 12 different wedding officers.

“I am happy because I didn’t need to arrange anything [for the wedding] and the process was very quick,” said Mursinah, 24, one of the brides. The couples were paraded around the factory compound on a 1953 German-made train normally used for tourists. The wedding couples were accompanied by 12 foreign student couples wearing traditional Javanese attire.

The couples were also given a chance to spend their honeymoons in a star-rated hotel in Yogyakarta, said Ryan Budi Nuryanto of the organizing committee.

A different response was apparent in Semarang, Central Java, however. Locals were not enthusiastic about getting married on 12-12-12, as it fell in the month of Sura in the Javanese calendar. Traditional Javanese believe that no weddings should be held during Sura; otherwise, bad luck will follow.