Chicago: Introducing Falun Dafa in Hometown Fest

(Minghui.org) Local Falun Dafa practitioners participated in the Hometown Fest in Palatine, a village at the northwest Chicago suburb, on July 1-3, 2022. The festival was held to celebrate Independence Day. It was a great opportunity to introduce Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, to the public.　

Palatine has held the Hometown Fest to celebrate Independence Day every year since 1957. This year was the 65th Hometown Fest. In addition to the carnival, live bands, food, and fireworks, the festival also invited many local political and business entities, craft suppliers and non-profit organizations to participate, attracting people from other cities and towns in the greater Chicago area.

Falun Dafa practitioners placed display boards with a brief introduction about Falun Dafa and its spread throughout the world at their booth. Fliers, pamphlets, and cards with information of the group practice sites were placed on the table. The booth was also decorated with beautiful handmade lotus flowers. The practitioners demonstrated the exercises, attracting people to pause and watch. Many asked for more details about the spiritual practice.

Falun Dafa practitioners participate in the Hometown Fest in Palatine, Chicago.

After hearing practitioners clarify the truth about Falun Dafa, many people expressed their interest in learning it and asked for information regarding nearby practice sites.

A middle-aged woman looked at the exhibition boards and told a practitioner that she had heard of Falun Dafa many years before in Chicago’s Chinatown. She said that she bought the main book of the practice, Zhuan Falun, to read.

A man told practitioners that he had heard about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong in a church earlier, and he felt sympathetic.

After listening to the practitioner’s introduction that practicing Falun Dafa can help reduce stress and increase vitality, a tourist from Wisconsin said that he would look for more details on the Falun Dafa website. He sincerely thanked the practitioner.

Background: What Is Falun Dafa and Why is the CCP Persecuting it?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in over 100 countries and regions worldwide. Millions of people who have embraced the teachings, which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and learned the five exercises, have experienced improved health and well-being.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and on July 20, 1999, issued an order to ban the practice.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners as a result of the persecution over the past 23 years. The actual number is believed to be much higher. More have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply the organ transplant industry.

Under Jiang’s personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organization with the power to override the police and judicial systems, and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Dafa.