(Clearwisdom.net) On Sunday August the 7th 2005, over eighty groups from various places around the world came to participate in the Edinburgh International Art Festival Parade in the capital of Scotland. The parade is the main event in the annual month-long festival. This year was the fourth time that Falun Gong practitioners have participated in the parade and also the fourth time that they won the community category award for their outstanding parade performance.
  Practitioner: here is a lotus flower for you |
  Practitioners' parade procession |
  Falun Gong exercises demonstration on the float |
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At 2:30pm in the afternoon, the parade officially started. The Falun Gong procession was led by three practitioners holding three large tablets with the Chinese words "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" printed on them. They were followed by golden and purple Falun Gong banners, a traditional Chinese Dragon Dance and Lion Dance, and a float decorated with the Falun emblem and lotus flowers. On the float, two adults and two little practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. Following the float was the fan dance troupe and then a golden "Falun Gong" banner. In the Falun Gong parade team, there were also banners reading, "The world needs Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance", "Falun Dafa benefits millions of people spiritually and physically" and "Falun Dafa widely spreads all over the world in more than sixty countries" in English and in Chinese.
Successive rounds of applause resounded as the Falun Gong team passed by. A lot of on-lookers asked for flyers along the way. The handmade paper lotus flowers with attached bookmarks were very popular.
On the other side of the city, some practitioners set up a "Rescue Orphans of Falun Gong practitioners" booth to collect signatures of support and call on all kind-hearted people to take action to help end the persecution. The practitioners ran into many passersby who said that they had obtained information of Falun Gong during the parade. Two middle-aged western ladies told us: "Falun Gong is the most peaceful and beautiful group!"
Every Falun Gong activity is made possible by the practitioners' selfless contribution and hard work, and that was the case for this parade. Some practitioners drove to Edinburgh right after getting off from work on Friday afternoon to join the dance rehearsal on Saturday morning, while some spent their hard-earned money to make leaflets and lotus flowers; some practitioners cooked food for others...
One practitioner's husband has been observing practitioners' activities very closely, and he knew how practitioners are frugal with their money in order to spend it on helping people learn the truth about Falun Gong and the brutal persecution against the practice by the Chinese Communist Party. He volunteered himself to drive a couple of practitioners to Edinburgh, which took sixteen hours back and forth, to save the cost of train tickets so that they can put the money to good use.
From their interaction with practitioners, the employees in the youth hostel where practitioners stayed came to understand the truth about Falun Gong. They expressed hopes that practitioners will be back next year.
Photos from the Edinburgh Evening News
BBC News 24 broadcasted footage of the practitioners' procession and exercise demonstration. The Edinburgh Evening News also published pictures of the practitioners' performance in the parade
Source http://clearharmony.net/articles/200508/28328.html
