United Kingdom: Falun Gong Procession in London’s Famous Lord Mayor’s New Year Parade

This was the second year that Falun Gong practitioners participated in the famous Lord Mayor’s New Year Parade through central London. Last year Falun Gong was warmly received by the crowds despite the cold wet weather, and again this year the people showed much support to the Falun Gong procession.

The parade first started in 1987 and since then it has grown every year to become one of the world’s biggest events of its kind. Hosting more than 10,000 participants from 20 countries around the world and boasting of crowds of more than half a million people, the new year parade has become one of England’s leading cultural events. The route of the parade passes some of London’s greatest historical sites including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street, Royal Horse Guards, Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall, Piccadilly Circus and finally ending at Berkeley Square.

This was a great opportunity for practitioners of Falun Gong to show the beauty and goodness of the practice and Chinese culture to literally hundreds of thousands of people. At the same time, as the procession passed people on the street, many leaflets where handed out letting people know about the persecution against Falun Gong in China. Practitioners also handed out beautiful handmade paper Lotus Flowers with labels reading “The World needs Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance”.

The Falun Gong parade started with three young practitioners holding the words Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, which are the central principles of the practice. After this was a couple of banners, one of which read “The World needs Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance”. Many people in the crowd read this banner and then called out words of support to the practitioners holding it. After the banners came the fan dancing team who looked very beautiful in traditional Chinese costumes and were extremely gracious in their routine. Following the fan dance team was the Falun Dafa float, a van dressed up in beautiful banners and lotus flowers with a large copy of Zhuan Falun (the main book of Falun Gong) in the middle, with practitioners performing the exercises round the side of it. Behind the float was the traditional Chinese waist drum team.

Falun Gong is deeply rooted in Chinese culture and practitioners enjoy sharing the delights of these traditions with others. The efforts of the Chinese Communist Party to completely destroy traditional Chinese culture over the last fifty years have now culminated in their campaign of genocide against Falun Gong. The practitioners hoped that as well as enjoying the parade that day, the large crowds could remember that in China 100 million innocent Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted because they refuse to renounce their peaceful beliefs.

The support from the people of London touched the practitioners’ hearts. Many people shouted out “Happy New Year!” Some people waved, some people gave the thumbs up sign and others called out words of compliment.

When the parade ended the practitioners gathered together and took a group photograph and a video wishing the founder of Falun Gong, Master Li Hongzhi, a Happy New Year.