(Clearwisdom.net) March is the month of the cherry blossom. The annual cherry blossom festivals in each small city attract many tourists to view the flowers and the parade. Falun Gong practitioners in the Atlanta area participated in cherry blossom festivals in the cities of Macon and Conyers, introducing Dafa and clarifying the truth to tourists.

The Annual Macon International Cherry Blossom Festival has a 22-year-old history and is one of the 50 largest festivals in the United States. Over 275,000 cherry trees blossom and attract many tourists. Two years ago, Dafa practitioners set up a booth in the festival and our exercise demo left a deep impression on the host organization. The city of Macon and Bibb County governments have issued proclamations for Falun Dafa.

To help more people learn about Falun Dafa, practitioners decided to participate in the festival's parade again. However, the deadline for the application passed when we applied for participation. The host organization specially approved our application based on the good impression of our previous years' performance. There were many things to prepare for the parade, but practitioners cooperated well and finished in a short time. While renting a flat-bed truck from Home Depot, they were short of trucks. Practitioners enlightened to try renting one from other Home Depot branches to clarify the truth to more people. Finally, a Home Depot branch provided us a truck free of charge. The manager of the branch said, "Jiang regime's persecution of Falun Gong is absolutely absurd. I wish I could do more to support Falun Gong and help end the inhuman persecution in China."

In Macon's parade on March 24, the Falun Gong procession was led by practitioners holding banners that read, "Falun Dafa" and "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance," followed by nine female practitioners in white costumes. With red fans in hand, they danced along with piano music, winning the applause of the spectators. Next came a float decorated with lotus flowers rotating in the wind while practitioners demonstrated Falun Gong exercises on the float. After the float, practitioners from Atlanta, Florida and Alabama held banners with the words, "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" in over ten languages including Chinese, English, Spanish, Italian, French, Japanese and German.

A Western practitioner who demonstrated the exercises on the float said that applause from spectators was continuous along the parade path. Someone asked loudly, "What is Falun Dafa?" She replied in a loud voice too, "It is a Qigong exercise system that originated in China." "I really like it," replied the spectator. The practitioner felt that there was a wave of powerful energy through her whole body and the energy moved to the spectators.

The Macon Cherry Blossom Festival emphasized peace and international friendship. Among the spectators, there were many Chinese people. When the Falun Gong procession passed by, they also applauded and greeted us. One Chinese couple said, "We are very pleased to see that your procession is so grand."

Senator Saxby Chambliss, Congressman Mac Collins and Jim Marshall, Director Wu of Taibei Department of Economy and Education, the Japanese Consul General, and the Australian Consul General also participated in the parade. CBS TV Station provided live coverage of the whole parade.

On March 27, 2004, Falun Gong practitioners were invited to give an exercise demo and Chinese traditional dance in the opening ceremony of Conyers Cherry Blossom Festival. This is the third time Falun Gong practitioners have participated in the festival.

The practitioners also set up a booth in the festival. It was unusually hot. Under the scorching sun, Falun Gong practitioners distributed truth-clarification literature to visitors. A neurology doctor came to the booth and said that he conducted research on the brainwashing methods of the Chinese Communist Party and knows clearly that there are no human rights in China at all. He said he completely supports Falun Gong. He signed our petition to rescue Charles Li and support the lawsuit against Jiang and left his contact information.

In addition, practitioners also found that more senior western people seemed interested in Falun Dafa than in the past. After talking with practitioners and taking some materials, the senior people said that they would pray for us and wished us success.