Some Experiences of Participating in a Holiday Float Parade

Every year there are holiday float parades in many cities in North America, such as on Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays. Christmas parades are often the most spectacular. We think float parades are a very good way to Hongfa, since in a very short time we could let tens of thousands or even more people hear about Dafa, especially in the cities where there are no practitioners yet.

The idea of participating in float parades to Hongfa began in the latter half of last year. Initially we planned to rent a float, however we could not find one. So we decided to decorate a flat bed trailer instead. Through the coordinated efforts of all practitioners, we spent less than $300 and successfully decorated a float with lights, a sound system, beautiful flowers, and colorful ribbons.

Since last October until now we have participated in about 20 parades in dozes of cities in seven states in the Midwest of the US. The effects have been very good. The numbers of spectators range from several thousands to hundreds of thousands. Often, the TV stations have live broadcasts. Last year when we participated in the St. Louis Thanksgiving parade, NBC live-broadcasted the parade to over 10 million viewers in the Midwest region and more people had a chance to hear about Dafa. Each time, we distributed lots of flyers. Sometimes there were so many spectators that we ran out of flyers half way through.

Last Saturday, we participated in the Christmas parade in Springfield, Missouri. It was the biggest activity of the city. In a city with a population of 200,000, about 50, 000 to 60,000 people went to watch the parade. The local TV stations were present. There were four stages along the route. Each time when we passed a stage, the host would introduce the Dafa float with a brief introduction to Dafa. Six practitioners distributed flyers but could not keep up with the demand.

Certainly not every time the parade would go smoothly. Sometimes we had bad weather, sometimes our applications were declined, and sometimes the organizers did not allow us to pass out flyers. We realize that these are all interferences from the evil. So we sent forth righteous thoughts before the parade, and since then things have become very smooth.

We usually search for the announcements of parades from websites and check with the organizers about the duration of the parade, the numbers of participants, and expected spectators so we have some idea of the parade. Before each parade we prepare a brief introduction to Falun Dafa. Almost at each parade there is a stage and sometimes it is with live TV broadcasting. When we pass the stage, the host can then read the introduction of Dafa.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/11/29/20576.html

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