By a Falun Dafa practitioner from Melbourne, Australia

(Clearwisdom.net) On February 26, 2006, Falun Gong practitioners from Melbourne were invited to the Clayton Festival Parade for the fourth time. The festival is the most exciting event of the year in Clayton, a city to the east of Melbourne in Victoria Province. The festival has a long history but had stopped for ten years. Four years ago, the city decided to organize the celebration again, and the Falun Gong practitioners have been highly regarded for their participation each year.

The organizer said that this year's event was on a larger scale than previous years and would attract about 200,000 spectators. Eight groups participated in the parade and they came from different ethnic groups and different communities, which represented the diversity of culture of Melbourne.

Falun Gong's procession was the last of the parade. It was composed of a Waist Drum Section, Tang Costume Show, and Fan Dance. One spectator said, "What beautiful colors!" A woman with a Taiwanese accent said, "They look peaceful and elegant."

One Falun Dafa practitioner said that a lot more people came to the Falun Dafa booth to ask for truth-clarification materials this year than in the past. They liked the story of Fadu and "Petals of Peace."

Two young men who looked like students from China saw Western practitioner Kate in her Tang Dynasty Costume and wanted to take a photo with her. She agreed, and later when Kate performed the dance as a Falun Gong practitioner with three other practitioners, the two young men were a little surprised at first. They watched and became more and more joyful and gave them warm applause. When another practitioner handed them a truth-clarification flyer, they willingly accepted it.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/2/28/121769.html