(Clearwisdom.net) On Sunday May 16, 2004 Irish Dafa practitioners were joined by practitioners from England for an afternoon of activities to celebrate the Fifth World Falun Day. The day was full of golden sunshine, which meant that Dublin city centre was crowded with people. Practitioners distributed flyers and talked with people about the benefits of practicing Falun Dafa and the brutal persecution that is happening in China. The day began with a demonstration of the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. Many people stopped to watch the peaceful and graceful movements and listen to the beautiful exercise music.
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| Exercise demonstration | |
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| Waist drum team | Traditional Chinese dancing |
May 13 not only marked the Fifth World Falun Dafa Day but also commemorated twelve years since Falun Gong was introduced to the public by Master Li Hongzhi. Practitioners chose to celebrate this special day by sharing some of the best aspects of Chinese culture with the people of Dublin and the many tourists visiting the city. The opening performance was a traditional Chinese waist drum piece. This is known as a harvest celebration in China and is traditionally believed to ward off evil ghosts and spirits. The drumming was followed by traditional Chinese fan dancing and parasol dancing. A young practitioner performed a musical piece on the Xiao (Chinese flute) and there was also a song by a small choir of Irish and UK practitioners.
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| Traditional Chinese dancing | |
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| Practicing Exercises | Reading about Falun Dafa and the persecution |
The activities were repeated throughout the day for the large and ever-changing crowd of people passing by. The performances were interspersed with the most important performance of the day: the Falun Gong exercise demonstration. Qigong exercises are another typical part of Chinese culture and Falun Gong is the most popular qigong in Chinese history. The fact that 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong before Jiang Zemin launched the brutal persecution in July 1999 provides an insight into the enormous and horrifying scale of this persecution. When one takes into account the victimization and coercion of these 100 million innocent people's friends, families and even employers, it becomes obvious that the genocide happening at the moment in China is of proportions never seen before in history.
Many people passing through Dublin stopped to watch the performances and find out more about Falun Gong. Practitioners encouraged everyone to join the Falun Dafa celebrations; balloons and paper lotus flowers were given out to children and everyone could have their name written in traditional Chinese calligraphy characters. People asked questions such as why a practice that is so peaceful is suffering cruel and unfounded persecution. One can only be surprised that these enormous crimes against humanity arise from the personal jealous vendetta of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin and pleased that lawsuits have now been launched against this dictator in countries all over the world.
The celebrations of May 13 in Dublin were a great success. Many people enjoyed the performances and got to learn more about Falun Dafa.
Category: Dafa Day Celebrations
