(Clearwisdom.net) On January 1, as the only Chinese group, Falun Gong practitioners participated the Philadelphia Mummers New Year's Day Parade, which is the oldest annual New Year's parade in the U.S. More than 10,000 people participated in the performance this year, and many people even came from a long way to watch this unique holiday celebration. The participants dressed up in colorful costumes and were accompanied by unique music; this arrangement is to promote good values and celebrate the New Year.

The theme of practitioners' performance was, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Practitioners demonstrated Falun Gong exercises on a beautiful float with "Truthfulness- Compassion-Tolerance", "Happy Holidays" and "The World Need Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance" banners hanging from it. Practitioners also performed the "Heavenly Maiden Dance", "Fan Dance", "Waist Drum" and "Dragon Dance." Through their performance, Falun Gong practitioners showed the spectators the essence of traditional Chinese culture.

Practitioners said: "We hope that we can present Falun Gong's fundamental principle, "Truthfulness- Compassion-Tolerance" to the audience. We sincerely hope that everyone will have a happy new year."

Spectators crowded both sides of the parade procession, and many applauded the Falun Gong practitioners' outstanding performance. Many people, including some police officers, accepted and read truth-clarifying fliers from practitioners. There were also many Chinese in the audience, and they were very proud of the practitioners' performance.

Mr. Shunsan Li came to Philadelphia a half year ago from Zhejiang Province. He said: "The Chinese Dragon and Lion Dances as well as the Waist Drum are very good. I am very excited seeing a Chinese performance of this quality."

Sali and her husband said: "This is our first time to watch this New Year's parade. We like it. We are very glad to see a Chinese group displaying Chinese culture."

Posting date: 1/5/2004
Original article date: 1/5/2004
Category: Falun Dafa Worldwide
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/1/3/63936.html

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