Philadelphia Practitioners Celebrate World Falun Dafa Day

On the morning of May 13, the spring breeze was pleasantly warm and the sunshine genial. Under a banner with the words "World Falun Dafa Day" and "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance," over twenty Falun Dafa practitioners from Greater Philadelphia area gathered at a famous historical spot in Philadelphia-Liberty Bell Pavilion-to celebrate a sacred holiday, the first annual World Falun Dafa Day.

The ceremony started at 11 o'clock. Practitioners first read out greetings from the Mayor of Philadelphia, a citation from the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and a proclamation from Congressman Fattah, which all recognize the celebration of World Falun Dafa Day. Then a practitioner made a speech, expressing our immense gratitude for Master Li's bringing Falun Dafa to the public eight years ago, and our deep concern and great reverence for the practitioners in China. Afterwards practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Dafa exercises. The peaceful and serene atmosphere attracted a lot of tourists; many came to ask for information and materials. A lot of them were officials who had come from mainland China on business trips.

A middle-aged Chinese came to our table and read Zhuan Falun for a long while. He pointed to a sentence in the section, "Hospital Treatment and Qigong Treatment," and asked a practitioner: "You see, the book says clearly that 'Therefore, replacing everyday people's hospitals with qigong will not work at all...' How come the propaganda in China arbitrarily claims that Falun Gong doesn't allow people to go to hospitals?" Smiling at him, the practitioner said: "If you can read this book from the beginning to the end, you will find that the propaganda in China doesn't concur with the fact at all." Upon hearing this, the person nodded again and again and said that he just came from Chongqing, China, and had always wanted to learn about the truth of Falun Gong without following the Chinese Government's propaganda blindly.

The site for the celebration is a very special place because the Liberty Bell is the most famous tourist attraction in Philadelphia. The auspicious ceremony continued in an orderly way. One police officer told a practitioner who was hosting the ceremony sincerely: "You are doing really great! Keep it up."

In the afternoon, practitioners came to a park near the City Hall to hold Hong Fa activities. It had gotten very humid and hot by then, and everybody was dripping with sweat. But all of the practitioners demonstrated the exercises without being the least bit negligent. One American lady who had just finished reading Master Li's works came to learn the exercises and expressed her joy over attaining the Fa. Toward the end of the day, two American kids around age 6-7 joined us on their own, imitating "Jie Yin" and "Holding Wheel." The little girl curiously asked: "What are you doing?" Though she might not have understood our explanation, she did learn the exercises conscientiously. Her innocent expression was very touching.

The Hong Fa activities of "World Falun Dafa Day" introduced Dafa to many people from different stratums in society. We hope that all kind-hearted people of the world will soon have the opportunity to attain the Fa.