Helsinki, Finland: Raising Awareness at the World Village Festival of China’s Ongoing Persecution of Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) The annual “World Village Festival” was held in the capital city of Finland’s Helsinki May 24 and 25, 2025. This is one of Finland’s largest multicultural events, attracting 62,000 participants this year. The theme this year was “peace.” Falun Gong practitioners have participated in the event for 20 consecutive years.

The practitioners set up an information booth, gave exercise demonstrations, handed out informational Dafa materials, and collected petition signatures. The practitioners exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

This year, many people approached the booth to sign the petition and show their support after reading reports on Yle, a news station in Finland about the CCP’s stepped-up efforts to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. They expressed admiration for the peace and rationality shown by practitioners.

Practitioners demonstrated the five exercises and gave out flyers and paper lotus flowers at the event. The lotus flowers with the words “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” on them were very popular. Many people said, “This is such a meaningful message!”

People signed the petition calling for an end to the persecution in China at the World Village Festival in Helsinki.

Sanna, a woman who lives near the Chinese embassy, told practitioners that she often saw the practitioners holding peaceful protests outside the embassy. So she knew about the brutal suppression and the suffering of practitioners a long time ago. After signing the petition, she emphasized the significance of collecting signatures for the petition and said she hopes more people can show their support.

Siiri, another woman, took her son to the booth. She said she had previously learned of the persecution through similar activities held at Sibelius Park. She expressed deep sympathy for the persecution suffered by practitioners in China. She thought that just knowing about the persecution was not enough, and that people must take action. She hopes Western countries and the government of Finland can impose economic sanctions as well as other forms of punishment on countries like China that do not respect human rights. She said she admires practitioners’ long-time persistence in peacefully raising awareness in various places in the city, and hopes people can start to pay attention to the suffering of Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, practitioners in China.

Most people were shocked upon learning the facts about organ harvesting, and signed the petition at once, demanding an end to the atrocities. A Finnish couple was astounded to hear details of the persecution. The woman had to take several deep breaths because she was so shocked. They said they could not understand how the CCP could do such evil things like organ harvesting after seeing the calm demeanor of Falun Gong practitioners. They thought no one should be treated like that. Both of them thanked practitioners for telling them about the persecution, and said they loved the lotus flowers given to them.

A man from Finland recalled receiving a flier about Falun Gong in his letterbox during COVID. He said they were very brave to expose the persecution, and he was moved. At the booth, he affirmed his support for practitioners after hearing a practitioner’s experience of being persecuted for his belief, and wished practitioners best of luck.

Besides Finish citizens, people from other parts of the world also heard about the persecution at the festival. Soubir and Seema, a couple from Bangladesh, also approached practitioners at the booth. They too knew of the bad deeds by the CCP a long time ago, and they signed the petition without hesitation. They said they were not strangers to the brutality of the CCP as China’s neighbors.

A young woman from another country who practices another form of qigong was delighted to find Falun Gong at the festival. She said her teacher told her about Falun Gong and has deep respect for the founder. Hence she has a deep interest in the practice, and asked practitioners where she could learn the practice and exercises.