Written by a Falun Dafa practitioner from Washington State

(Clearwisdom.net) The annual National Lentil Festival Parade is a significant event in the university town of Pullman, Washington State, USA. On August 21, 2004, in the warm festival atmosphere, the city held its sixteenth National Lentil Festival Parade.

In the morning, local Falun Gong practitioners along with practitioners from Portland, Spokane, Lewiston and Moscow formed our section at the starting point of the parade. The golden-colored banners and exercise suits, as well as our pink-colored lotus float and beautiful music, were the focus of people's attention throughout the parade. This is the fourth time for Falun Gong practitioners to participate in the National Lentil Festival Parade.

Practitioners getting ready for the parade

The award

Practitioners gave out colorful hand-made paper lotus flowers before the parade began. People liked them so much that we quickly ran out of them. After the parade began, two practitioners handed out truth-clarification materials to the spectators along the parade route. At the front of our group was a beautifully made big banner with the words, "Falun Dafa, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," in red, on a golden background. Next we had a float on top of which a young female practitioner sat in meditation in the petals of a pink lotus flower. The beautiful music of "Pudu" and "Jishi" was played constantly around the float. As our team proceeded, it felt as if the music, full of compassion, covered the whole city. The spectators were very friendly and welcoming, and many waved and greeted us, and some even gave us cheers and applause from time to time. The kids were especially lovely, and every one of them waved to us with big smile on their faces.

When we passed the reviewing stand, an introduction of Falun Dafa was announced loudly through the speaker. Shortly afterwards, one of the event coordinators came down from the stage and handed the practitioners an award. It was an exquisite cut glass trophy with an engraved pattern in the middle, and on the base it read, "Best Theme Sweepstakes." They gave the only theme award to Falun Gong practitioners, especially for "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." It is wonderful that "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and Falun Dafa have entered into people's hearts.

At the end point of the parade, Reaney Park, practitioners put up posters and demonstrated the exercises, and distributed more truth-clarification materials. Before and after the parade, many practitioners had friendly talks with Chinese people. In the park, many Chinese people took the initiative to take the truth-clarification materials, and they carefully read the posters about the campaign to "Bring Jiang to Justice for Genocide." Some practitioners would say, "How are you" as soon as they met Chinese people, and the Chinese people would respond with, "How are you," and a sincere smile.