(Clearwisdom.net) On November 20, 2004, Falun Gong practitioners from Triangle area, Charlotte and Wilmington, North Carolina participated in the 60th Raleigh Christmas Parade.
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Charlotte is the state capital of North Carolina. Residents here are relatively conservative. Over the past few years, practitioners filed several applications to attend the city's parades but did not get approval. This year, practitioners made sufficient preparation in the process of application. In addition to the introduction of Falun Gong, practitioners also listed festival parades they attended in other cities and provided photos of floats and dance performance by practitioners in other states while participating in grand parades. Practitioners told the sponsor that they also had a beautiful Tang Dynasty dance performance. The sponsor happily approved their application.
On the day of the parade, the weather was very pleasant. It was estimated that about 60,000 people viewed the parade along the streets. Raleigh TV station ran a live broadcast of the grand Christmas Parade. About 200,000 people were estimated to watch the parade through the TV broadcasting. Falun Gong practitioners' procession was warmly received. Their unique lotus flower dance, beautiful float, exercise demonstration on the float as well as practitioners dressed in ancient Chinese costumes won rounds of warm applause from the spectators.