Falun Gong Practitioners from Washington State Celebrate Carnival with Oak Harbor Citizens (Photos)

By practitioners from Washington State

(Clearwisdom.net) From April 27 to 28, Washington State practitioners attended the Carnival, also called Holland Happening, which is held once a year in the City of Oak Harbor located at Whidbey Island in Washington State. The Mayor of Oak Harbor proclaimed January 6 to 12, 2002 as "Falun Dafa Week" at the beginning of this year. The Mayor encouraged his residents to learn and practice the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." During the parade and other celebration activities, practitioners not only introduced Falun Dafa and the persecution encountered by practitioners in China to local residents using photo exhibits and exercise demonstrations, they also told the residents that "Life needs Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." The local people highly agreed and praised the principle.

During the celebration parade on April 27, the procession of Falun Gong practitioners attracted lots of attention. Accompanied by gentle and beautiful music, practitioners demonstrated the elegant movements of Falun Gong. Throughout the two-day celebration, the Falun Gong booth attracted lots of visitors. The photos told many stories about Falun Gong and answered many people's questions. Some visitors eagerly asked practitioners to teach the exercises on site. Some expected to have exercise classes in their local area. Moreover, many people requested to sign the petitions to protest the Jiang regime's brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

As the theme of the celebration was "Liberty," some practitioners designed special paper planes for children upon which were written, "Falun Gong" and "Freedom." The children loved the paper planes so much that at times, the demand exceeded supplies. There were also many visitors lined up waiting to get the Chinese calligraphy of "Zhen, Shan, Ren." Because visitors were very happy to accept Falun Gong materials, there were not enough to meet the demand.

After the celebration, practitioners who attended the activities wrote a letter to the Mayor of the City of Oak Harbor, expressing their appreciation for the praise and honor he gave to Falun Gong.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/5/3/29450.html

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