(Clearwisdom.net) On June 19, 2011, Falun Gong practitioners participated in the annual East Finchley Festival in Cherry Tree Wood in North London.
Falun Gong practitioners talk to people about Falun Gong at the East Finchley Festival in London
The East Finchley Festival began in 1974 and has been held each year for 37 consecutive years. The festival integrates sports, food, music, performing arts and entertainment, attracting a lot of people each year. This year’s festival had over 60 exhibition booths.
The Falun Gong booth displayed beautiful hand-made paper lotus flowers and Falun Gong introductory leaflets. Several practitioners continuously demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises. Many visitors were attracted by the graceful exercises, and stopped to watch or take photos. Quite a few people said that they wished that an exercise class would be set up locally. Others said that they would go online to learn about Falun Gong, and were happy to learn that all the Falun Gong learning material can be downloaded free of charge.
The exhibition started around noon and ended at 5:30 in the afternoon. A few intervals of drizzle did not dilute the festival-goers' interest. Many people learned about the beauty of Falun Dafa and also heard about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Over 100 people signed the petition calling for an end to the persecution. Some of them said that they clearly understood the nature of the dictatorship in communist countries. Others said that they could not understand why such a peaceful exercise practice would be persecuted in China.
A woman who often traveled between London and Chicago said that she had seen Falun Gong activities in Chicago. Another lady said that she came across Falun Gong practitioners in France, but she did not know what exactly Falun Gong was. This time, both of them not only signed the petition to show their support for Falun Gong, but also said that they would learn more online. One gentleman, who had seen Falun Gong activities in Central London, was pleased to see the practitioners at the festival in East Finchley and expressed his support.
An Englishman with a Japanese wife came to the Falun Gong booth and signed the petition with his two kids. Though he was Buddhist, he said that he paid attention to the Falun Gong situation. He said that everyone should have freedom of expression and belief, and that the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong was shameless.
A young Englishman also came to the booth and asked for a leaflet. He signed his name to show his support. He told the practitioners, “I used to teach English in Chongqing, and my students told me about the banning of Falun Gong in China. When I asked for more information, the students seemed very scared and reluctant to continue the topic.” Now that he had run across Falun Gong again, he wanted to know as much as he could about it.
In all activities held by Falun Gong practitioners, the paper lotus flowers proved to be particularly loved by both young and old alike. This festival was no exception, especially for young kids. One child held a lotus flower given to him by practitioners and shouted excitedly to his family members, “Look, what a beautiful flower!”
The Falun Gong booth happened to be next to a Chinese medicine booth staffed by a woman from Guangxi, China. She said to the practitioners, “The exercises must be not bad at all. You all look very very healthy.” When the festival was over, she said that she would get more information from the Falun Gong website.
There were about six people working at the Chinese medicine booth. One of them, from Guangdong, came to help his friend (the owner). Upon seeing the exercise demonstration, he followed along with the practitioners carefully. Another helper was a student from Mainland China. She told the practitioners that her parents had told her that Falun Gong was not at all like what the Chinese media described. She said that she would go online to learn more about Falun Gong.
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