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Berlin, Germany: Candlelight Vigil During the "Long Night at the Museums"

Sept. 14, 2006 |   By a practitioner from Germany

(Clearwisdom.net) Every year Berlin stages a special attraction, a cultural event that is quite unusual. It is called the "Long Night at the Museums." It took place for the 20th time on August 26th, 2006. The event drew quite a lot of people - citizens of Berlin and tourists. Over a hundred cultural establishments took part in this event. From 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., everyone can soak up as much culture as they can.

During the event, many people stroll along the streets. Keeping this in mind, practitioners decided to use the opportunity and also take to the streets so that they could tell the people about the persecution in China.

Informing people about the organ harvesting

Candlelight vigil

A permit for an information booth and a candlelight vigil was obtained for a spot in the heart of the "Long Night," in the middle of the Berlin Dom and close to the Old National Gallery and the Old Museum. Many public buses and the special shuttles for the "Long Night at the Museums" stopped right nearby. People looking through the windows of the buses could see the Falun Gong banners and read about the persecution.

Even before we had finished putting up the information booth, people already began to look at the presentation boards. Although the weather was not perfect, many people passed by our booth and took flyers. Many looked at the displays and the flyers, while some wanted to discuss the situation with practitioners. Despite the rain, many people signed the petition, asking the German Federal Government to be instrumental in bringing about an end to the organ harvesting in China.

Many young people showed interest in learning more about the persecution. They wanted to know why these people were persecuted. One mother encouraged her child to look at the display boards and answered the child's questions patiently. Because of the many discussions we had, we were able to distribute quite a number of copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

As soon as it turned dark, around 8:30 p.m., we lit the candles for our candlelight vigil. Although it rained on and off, and the wind blew out some of the candles, the people were very impressed with this display and stopped to see it. Even later when it got darker and the people had a difficult time seeing the boards, they still stopped and looked. They just came closer to the information boards. They could then see them and they were not a bit bothered by the darkness.

There was one person that evening who did not believe us. He said that all we said was bogus and Falun Gong is just holding a big show. After I asked him over and over again during our conversation about the origin of his knowledge, he admitted that he was a Sinologist and that he knew everything about China.

He said that it is true that China violates human rights and that he does not believe that everything is alright with what the Chinese regime does, but he insisted that they do not persecute Falun Gong. He did not argue about it, but kept stubbornly to his opinion that Falun Gong practitioners were not persecuted in China. He refused to read the Nine Commentaries, feeling he already knew everything about the party. I felt sorry for this man. I told him that there will be a day when he will hear the full truth and wished him a good evening. I sent righteous thoughts toward with the hope that he will no longer be taken in by the CCP propaganda.

All in all, the vigil was very successful. Many people could hear about the inhuman persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, and more and more truth became known.