(Minghui.org) Shoppers in Brooklyn Chinatown were greeted with colorful balloons on February 21, 2016. As it was one day ahead of the Lantern Festival, the final day of traditional Chinese New Year celebrations, crowds filled the streets.

Many shoppers lined up to get balloons from Falun Dafa practitioners. The balloons had the Chinese characters for “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”

Practitioners give out Falun Dafa balloons to Chinese New Year holiday shoppers in the crowded Brooklyn Chinatown.

A practitioner talks to passerby about the persecution of Falun Dafa in China and the movement of quitting the Chinese Communist Party.

According to one volunteer, about 100 Chinese people agreed to withdraw their memberships in the Chinese Communist Party that day. Many choose to separate themselves from the regime after learning of the horrific abuses it has carried out against Falun Dafa practitioners in China since 1999.

A Cultural Center

Eighth Avenue is a major street in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. It is the third largest Chinatown in New York. From 45th Street to 65th Street, Chinese immigrant-owned shops and stores were densely packed. Many Chinese living nearby and from the surrounding areas come here to shop on the weekends.

Local Falun Dafa practitioners have frequently visited this bustling district on weekends over the past ten-plus years, hanging banners reading “Falun Dafa is Good” and putting up display boards to inform the public about Falun Dafa and raise awareness of the brutal persecution of practitioners in China under the communist regime.