(Clearwisdom.net) On the morning of May 13 2005, Falun Dafa practitioners from the metro-Philadelphia area celebrated World Falun Dafa Day in Love Park near City Hall. The activities, which included exercise demonstrations, a free Falun Gong workshop and calligraphy, attracted many people.

Exercise Demonstration in Love Park near City Hall

Exercise Demonstration in Love Park near City Hall

The coordinator of this event said that Falun Dafa was his spiritual sustenance and this for him was the most important day of the year. He and his wife began to practice Falun Dafa in 2001. Soon, his chronic fatigue syndrome disappeared and he had a new life. Being Jewish, he deeply understands the cruelty of the Nazi persecution, so he doesn't want to see this happen to Chinese practitioners. Two months after beginning the practice, he felt he could no longer remain silent about the persecution of Falun Gong and started to help appeal to the Chinese government to stop the persecution. "I can't imagine anything more evil than the Chinese Communist Party, which persecutes its own people, including Falun Gong, Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and many others. In fact, you can be persecuted for believing anything other than Communism."

A Chinese woman had been detained in a brainwashing center in China for practicing Falun Gong. On this day, she was very excited, "I say today is a special day. Falun Gong has been persecuted in China for about six years; today (we) can celebrate the 13^th anniversary of Master teaching the Fa to public. Besides, today is Master's birthday, I am very excited. I am very happy." She began to practice Falun Gong in 1997, and her illnesses, such as migraine headaches, spondylosis, and heart disease were all cured after practicing Falun Gong.

A practitioner from Russia has over ten family members practicing Falun Gong. She is especially thankful to Falun Dafa, which provided answers to many difficult questions about God, life and the universe.

She had just graduated from Penn State and was distributing flyers to passersby. She said about 900f the people took the flyers.

On Saturday, practitioners went to the Liberty Bell, a famous tourist site, to practice the exercises and distribute flyers. They told people about the beauty of Falun Dafa and the on-going persecution in China.