Tens of thousands of people swarmed over to the Gold Coast to welcome the New Year, including hundreds of Mainland Chinese. Early evening, practitioners distributed Dafa flyers and SOS information to Chinese who were on their way to restaurants for dinner. Around 9 pm, practitioners from the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Byron Bay, got together to study the Fa and held a candlelight vigil from 11:00 pm to midnight to welcome the arrival of the New Year and remember the practitioners in China who are being so ruthlessly persecuted.

The Fa study was held at a blue house. A beautiful banner that reads Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance was displayed at the front of the house. The "Blue House" is situated on a very busy corner of Broadbeach where two major streets intersect. The outside of this block house has been professionally painted with information about Falun Dafa, our SOS message, free classes, websites and our principle of Zhen-Shan-Ren.

Throughout the evening, many passers-by said "Happy New Year to Falun Dafa" through the open doors. We watched Master Li on video and read Master's latest articles together.

At 11 pm, we lighted up our candles in the front of the "Blue House" in full view of the passing traffic and meditated until five minutes to midnight. We then sent forth righteous thoughts until 12:10 am. During this time, beeping horns sounded and we heard even more greetings to Falun Dafa. Fireworks displays were also continuously resounding in the sky throughout the entire time.

It was an evening we chose to spend together to immerse ourselves in Fa and to send righteous thoughts during this critical period as the old year was ending and a new year was being born.

We wish to extend our heartfelt greetings to all practitioners around the world.