(Clearwisdom.net, October 5, 2003) Virginia Beach is a very famous tourist attraction spot. Numerous tourists from different areas often visit here. The one-month-long Neptune Festival that is held annually in this city includes rich and colorful activities such as art exhibitions, a sand sculpting contest, an aircraft show and a grand parade. The Virginia Beach Neptune Festival Grand Parade has long been a favorite event of Virginia Beach residents and visitors. This year, the grand parade was held on September 28, bringing the Neptune Festival to a climax. More than 85 floats, military units, costumed characters, and marching bands participated in the parade and over 10,000 spectators enjoyed watching the parade. The hurricane that occurred a few days ago did not affect the parade. According to the event organizer, there were more participants this year than in previous years.
Falun Gong practitioners also joined this parade. Several months ago, when we applied to participate in the parade, it was already the final day of application. When the organizers looked at photos of practitioners' previous parades at other places, they were very impressed and praised the practitioners' performance. They warmly welcomed us to participate. Just one month prior to the event, we asked permission to join the show. Because the organizers were quite aware of the situation of Falun Gong, they immediately approved our request.
Falun Gong practitioners' procession included a float and a dance team. Female practitioners' beautiful heavenly maiden dance brought something new and fresh to the American people who did not know much about eastern culture. "So beautiful!" "So wonderful!" Wherever the procession passed through, practitioners were welcomed with cheers and applause. Following the Tang Dynasty Fashion Show was the float, which also attracted much attention. Practitioners performed Falun Gong exercises on the float. The serene demonstration allowed people to feel the peacefulness and beauty of Falun Gong. The spectators were quite interested in learning more about Falun Gong. One after another, they asked practitioners for more information. When they learned that practitioners would conduct a free workshop to teach the exercises, many local residents were very happy and expressed that they would like to join the workshop.
After the parade ended, spectators expressed their appreciation to practitioners. A person said that he read Falun Gong books before. Today he was very happy to personally watch practitioners' exercise demonstration. He asked us many questions about the practice. In the evening, a local TV station briefly reported the grand parade. The only footage shown on TV for the news about the parade was a scene in which Falun Gong practitioners were practicing the second exercise on the float. It appeared that Falun Gong practitioners' procession indeed looked very unique among the entire parade procession.
Two years ago, residents of Virginia Beach did not know much about Falun Gong. Now, more and more people have learned about Falun Gong and are beginning to practice it. On July 20 of this year, the Mayor of Virginia Beach wrote a letter to express his support for practitioners who attended the 2003 Washington DC Fa conference and encouraged them to persist in their cultivation practice and spiritual belief. Some nearby cities, including Norfolk and Newport News, also issued proclamations to honor Falun Gong and encouraged their residents to join this beautiful practice.
Through this activity, we obtained a deeper understanding of practitioners being one entity. After learning about this activity, many practitioners from Washington DC actively supported, participated in and helped with the coordination. On the day of the parade, they drove several hours to attend the parade and display the beauty of Dafa to local residents and tourists from other places.
