Bulgaria: Two Falun Dafa events in the European Capital of Culture Plovdiv

Falun Dafa practitioners hosted two events in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in September 2019.

The first, on September 14th, took place during the annual 3-day festival “Night of Museums and Galleries’ which has been running since 2005. The popular festival featured 110 different art projects: modern and traditional visual arts, theatre, cinema, music and dance.

In recent years, around 50 thousand visitors have attended the festival in which many museums, community centres, libraries, galleries, places of religious worship and municipal centres throughout the city open their doors to welcome a variety of artistic creations.

The festive ambiance did not distract the public’s interest from the serious subject of human rights violations of innocent people in China. Some were already familiar with Falun Dafa or had already seen the practice site in Plovdiv. Others spent some time reading the banners about forced organ harvesting.

After learning the truth, many were touched and compassionately signed the petition. Around 10 Falun Dafa practitioners were busy clarifying the facts to the visitors.

After hearing about the persecution, a religious man of Christian faith reflected on the relationship between the lack of moral values and the reality in China. “We are going to save ourselves only with righteous thoughts and actions”, he said.

On September 21st and 22nd, the weekend of Bulgaria’s Independence Day, practitioners participated in the culinary festival “Mood for Food”, an event intended to preserve the culinary traditions of local ethnic communities.

Falun Dafa practitioners presented the five exercises and gave paper lotus origami workshops. Visitors were asked to sign the petition calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

One young man, who had previously travelled to Asia expressed his observation: “Human life has no value in China. Everything that is anti-human is possible there and only a miracle can eradicate the evil.”

Many of the visitors who learned about the genocide for the very first time were shocked by the facts and readily declared their support by signing the petition. Others were made aware that behind the shiny face of China's economy were hidden violations of human rights and freedoms.

A girl from Hong Kong was interested in learning the exercises and impressed by the lotus origami workshops. She knew about the persecution in China, and asked for more information about Falun Dafa.

Another young man, who signed the petition in Czech Republic, brought his friends to sign too.

The lotus origami workshops were enjoyed by children and their parents. The kids left with happy faces and paper flowers. One practitioner happily commented “The lotus origami workshops were beautiful and everything fell into place just fine. They had both an energizing and calming effect on the visitors, as well as on me.”

A passerby praised the practitioners handling the origami workshops and commented that their effort was sacred. The man, who makes his living as a street musician, purchased a copy of Zhuan Falun [the main text of Falun Dafa practice] and had tears rolling down his face as he held the book in his hands.