United States: Magnificent Scenes from a Parade in California

October 12 was a fine and sunny Sunday, as Falun Gong practitioners in the San Francisco Bay Area participated in the 135th Italian Traditional Culture Festival Parade. This is the longest-running festival for Italian-Americans, and also one of the grandest annual parades in Northern California. It aims to celebrate Columbus's landing in America and Italian traditional culture. Every year, it attracts tens of thousands of people, and the procession also passes the major streets in Chinatown, which offered us a good opportunity to introduce Falun Dafa to the public.

North Beach in San Francisco is a famous tourist attraction. Practitioners participating in the parade wore a variety of Chinese traditional costumes. They demonstrated the Falun Dafa exercises on the float decorated with the Falun Dafa emblem. At the same time, a practitioner tirelessly introduced Falun Dafa in English, Chinese and Cantonese to people lining the streets. Dafa music was also played to accompany the procession. The spectators were amazed and expressed praise and applauded from time to time. Among tens of thousands of people, many were tourists from different countries of the world. They all witnessed the wonderfulness of Falun Dafa from today's parade.

The person in charge of the parade, Mr. Donald Casper, expressed that he was glad Falun Gong practitioners participated in the parade. When the Falun Gong procession passed the stage, the host introduced Falun Dafa to the spectators, and then he was touched by the peaceful and beautiful Falun Gong procession. He could not help saying, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the best principle. We need it so much. Falun Gong music gives people a feeling of peacefulness and harmony. Everyone can close their eyes for a while, and enjoy such wonderful music, that truly gives people a feeling of returning to nature."