Edmonton, Canada: Bring Falun Dafa's
Beauty to People (Photos) Falun Gong Practitioners Participate in Klondike Day Parade
(Clearwisdom.net) The Annual Klondike Day Parade is the
grandest parade in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta Province. 2004 happens
to be the 100th anniversary of the founding of Edmonton, so the
Klondike Day Parade on July 22 was even more splendid. More than 110
groups participated in the parade, about 200,000 spectators watched the
parade on the spot and hundreds of millions of people viewed the parade on
TV. During the parade, No. 100A Falun Gong practitioners'
contingent was especially eye-catching. The contingent was led by a huge
banner decorated with golden lotus flowers that read "Falun Dafa is Good."
Behind it were four beautiful "Green Faeries" who danced gracefully while
holding lotus flowers. They were the core of the contingent and led the
float. With blue as background, and gold as foreground, purple ribbons
circled the float and formed the shape of "Heavenly Gate." Golden words
"Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" in both Chinese and English were
embedded on the top of the "Heavenly Gate," implying that Falun Gong
practitioners believe in the universal principle
"Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." On the float, lotus flowers of a
variety of sizes were dotted here and there, four practitioners in golden
exercise suits sat on four large lotus flowers at four corners of the
float, demonstrating the exercises. Two angel like young practitioners sat
on the lotus flower plates on the higher stage, constantly waved to crowds
of people on the street. The shape of the float was elegant, refined and
solemn, like a peaceful paradise compared with other noisy parade
processions. Behind the float were six practitioners in red costumes who
performed a fan dance. At the end of the contingent was a huge golden
banner reading "Falun Dafa" and four banners of different colors that read
"Falun Dafa --Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" in English. Wherever the Falun Gong practitioners' contingent
approached, people gave them warm applause. Many people shouted loudly,
"Falun Dafa," "Falun Dafa is Good." Falun Gong practitioners' parade entry
entitled, "Bringing Falun Dafa's Beauty to People" achieved a great
success. Nevertheless, this splendid contingent had not begun
preparing until only two days before the parade began. Local Falun Gong practitioners had long applied for
participating in the annual parade, but the sponsor refused practitioners'
participation in mid June with an excuse that the entry lacked a "
recreational feature." At that time, a practitioner tried to appeal to the
sponsors and clarify the truth to them, but he could not contact related
staff of the sponsor. After the shooting incident in South Africa, while
contacting local media to clarify the truth about Falun Gong , a
journalist from the largest newspaper Edmonton Journal showed great
interest in and made a report on the fact that Falun Gong practitioners'
applications were refused twice in two years after participating in the
2002 Klondike Day, while Falun Gong practitioners' float won the first
prize award for culture and arts at the Stampede Festival. Afterwards,
local practitioners wrote a letter to editors of the newspaper regarding
this report, and further made an appeal on this matter. Two local western
practitioners proposed to officially appeal to the sponsor, and if the
matter still could not be resolved, they would appeal to the local human
rights association on the grounds of discrimination. With all Dafa practitioners' righteous thoughts, all
these things were successfully done in two days. On Monday, July 19, the
sponsor took the initiative to contact Falun Gong practitioners and
corrected their wrong decision, but they were afraid that Falun Gong
practitioners could not get everything ready in such a short period of
time while other groups had prepared for a long time. With only less than
two days' preparation time, practitioners resolutely decided to
participate in the parade. In the following two days, practitioners made a concerted
effort and not only finished preparation for the parade, but also
successfully participated in the parade with a good result. After the
parade, in the Edmonton Journal's report on Klondike Day Parade, specially
mentioned the Falun Gong practitioners' contingent, and highly praised
Falun Gong practitioners for bringing the beauty of Falun Dafa to the
citizens in Edmonton. It also said that the Falun Dafa float was so
beautiful that if the sponsor hadn't changed their wrong decision at the
last minute, it would be a big regret for this year's Klondike Day Parade.
Practitioners were proud that their newspaper had played such a positive
role in this matter. Posting date: 7/30/2004 |