(Clearwisdom.net) The South Boston St. Patrick's Parade is said to be the second largest parade in the country, being viewed by 600,000 to one million people every year, in addition to having the entire parade broadcast on live TV. This year, the parade was held on March 20. Among 50 bands, the Divine Land Marching Band, consisting of local Falun Gong practitioners, was the only Chinese group.

The Falun Gong entry

The Divine Land Marching Band

The Falun Gong entry

Spectators wave to the Falun Gong group.

Local Falun Gong practitioners participated in the parade for the fifth time. Their team was led by several big banners, which read “Falun Dafa” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” in both Chinese and English. The Divine Land Marching Band followed the banners. They performed several songs composed by practitioners and some American songs, such as “America the Beautiful”. After the band was the dragon dance team.

The spectators warmly welcomed practitioners' performances. There were many Chinese people in the audience. Some of them expressed that they were proud of the Falun Gong group. The organizer of the parade recalled that last year due to bad weather, several bands canceled or ended earlier their performances, but the Divine Land Marching Band walked all the way to the end in heavy rain, which made a deep impression on him. This year, he arranged the Divine Land Marching Band to be the second band in the parade, right after the Boston Police team. He said to practitioners: “You are the best.”

Several local media covered the story. NECN TV station praised the performances of practitioners, and the newspaper Boston Global published a picture of practitioners' dragon dance team.

Boston's St Patrick's Day Parade has a special patriotic flavor to it. On March 17, 1776, the Continental Army led by George Washington, set up 55 cannons on Dorchester Heights. When the British saw the cannons, they evacuated and left Boston to the Continental Army. The password for the Continental Army that day was “St. Patrick.” Even since then, St. Patrick’s Day is also a day for Bostonians to celebrate freedom.