(Clearwisdom.net) On August 14, 2004 the 75th Bud Billiken Parade was held on Martin Luther King Blvd in south Chicago. The event is regarded as the largest African American parade in North America and it attracted over one million visitors this year.
 Falun Gong procession. |
|   Falun Gong procession. |
|   Falun Gong exercises demonstration on the decorated float. |
The Bud Billiken parade was founded by Robert Abbot, the chief editor and founder of the Chicago Defender newspaper in 1929. The purpose was to give "underprivileged children a chance to be in the limelight for one day by wearing costumes, marching in a parade and being seen". Billiken is named after an angel who protects children in Chinese legend. Nowadays, this event has become an activity to welcome the students back to school on the second Saturday of August. The theme of this year is to "Give the youngsters better education".
There were 280 groups participating in the parade, and about 20 Chicago Falun Gong practitioners formed a team to participate in this parade for the first time. Our serene music and colorful dances attracted the attention from the spectators, especially because we have the little practitioners from Minghui School, and Falun Gong was one of the only three Asian groups. Many children chanted "Chinese, Chinese" to us and others spoke in Chinese, "Thank you, Xiexie." Many people also pressed their hands to salute us and said they had seen Falun Gong in front of the Chinese consulate and downtown area and they support us. When practitioners demonstrated the exercises on the float, the spectators followed their movements. When they performed the lotus dance, the spectators followed the dance gestures too. The spectators thanked the Falun Gong practitioners for bringing such precious thing to the community.
Cook County Representative Ms. Mary Flore came to us and shook hands with practitioners. She said that she had signed the resolution supporting Falun Gong recently and extended her best wishes. (Note: Illinois resolution #933)
When our procession passed the stage, the environment suddenly quieted down. The noise from the crowd, children's yelling and music were all gone. People were moved by our peace and serenity and watched our demonstration quietly. The host first said, "Gorgeous", and then he kept silent for a long time. Finally, he read out the characters on our banner "Falun Dafa is good!" He then raised his voice to tell the people if they wanted to learn more about Falun Dafa, please check the website Falundafa.org.
We also want to pass the blessings from the people to all the little practitioners in China.
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