(Minghui.org) A Chinese New Year celebration was held near Chinatown in Argentina's capital city of Buenos Aires on February 9 and 10, 2013.

As in past years, Falun Dafa practitioners participated in the celebration to display and share a part of genuine traditional Chinese culture, Falun Dafa cultivation practice.

With the Buenos Aires City Government's endorsement, Falun Dafa was assigned the most beautiful and remarkable location at the event, the pergola in Barrancas de Belgrano Square, where the beginning of the Year of the Snake was celebrated.

The pergola Barrancas de Belgrano was the privileged location assigned to Falun Dafa at the Chinese New Year celebration in Buenos Aires

People of different ages learn the Falun Dafa exercises during the Chinese New Year celebration

For the past eight years, Falun Dafa practitioners have demonstrated the exercises in Barrancas de Belgrano Square

Dozens of people learn the Falun Dafa exercises

Displaying posters worded “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Tolerance,” and, “Falun Dafa is good,” practitioners displayed the beauty, purity, and kindness of this ancient Chinese discipline, which is taught freely to people around the world.

Around 200 people learned the Falun Dafa exercises over the course of the New Year celebration. Many of them expressed how well they felt after the practice, and expressed their desire of learn more about its profound principles.

La Pergola in Barrancas de Belgrano, the heart of the Chinese New Year event

Sunday morning Falun Dafa practice in Buenos Aires

Falun Dafa at the Chinese New Year celebration

As practitioners demonstrated the exercises, the peaceful Falun Gong exercise music at the pergola drew many people who stopped to ask about the practice.

Falun Dafa practitioners in Argentina have long been spreading the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in Buenos Aires’ Belgrano neighborhood, where Chinatown is located. The discipline has been warmly accepted by the public and the city government. The fact that the Falun Dafa Association in Argentina was granted a permit to use the central pergola, where the main events were held, reflects the widespread local support Falun Dafa receives from the government.

Chinese Embassy Attempts to Interfere

One of the event’s sponsors was the Chinese Embassy. The organizers, public officials, and police received pressure from the Embassy to keep Falun Dafa out of the event.

On the first day of the event, Saturday, practitioners were deceived by a government official who said the permit was not entirely correct and thus practitioners had to remove their posters and banners. However, on the most important day of the celebration, Sunday, the practitioners spoke to the Association’s lawyer and were told that the permit was indeed official and no one there had authority to make them remove the materials. Thus, practitioners firmly said to the police and organizers that the Falun Dafa banners and posters would be displayed. Hence, the Chinese Embassy's attempt to repress Falun Dafa in this democratic country failed.