Australia: Practitioners Win "Best Theme Presentation" Award in Bendigo Easter Parade

On April 20-21, 2003, an annual Easter celebration entitled, "Golden Past, Golden Future" was held in Bendigo - a famous Gold Rush city north of Melbourne, Australia. About a hundred different groups and thousands of people participated in the celebrations. Falun Gong practitioners won two awards: "Best Social Group Participation" and "Best Theme Presentation."

Exercise demonstration	Lotus flower float

Fan dance	The procession passes through downtown area

Dance in traditional Chinese costume	Red silk ribbon dance

The history of Bendigo can be traced back to the year of 1851 when the Ballarat Goldfield was discovered. Over a hundred years later, Bendigo has become a prosperous county with a population of over 90 thousand. Chinese people who immigrated there at the time of the Gold Rush have added rich Chinese culture to the county. The Golden Dragon Museum has five famous artworks relating to Chinese dragons, including the longest dragon in the world. Bendigo thereby got its nickname "Dragon City." Easter celebrations attract people from all over Australia every year.

In this year's activity, Falun Gong practitioners won the "Best social group participation" award at the torch lantern festival on April 20, and "Best Theme Presentation" at the parade on April 21. The celebration organising committee commented that Falun Gong practitioner's Tang Dynasty costumes recreated the golden times of traditional Chinese culture. The large handmade artwork "Sail" that symbolises sailing into a golden future of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" highlighted practitioners' presentation on the theme of "Golden Future." Therefore, the committee granted "Best Theme Presentation" to the practitioners to reward their contribution to the celebration.