United States: Falun Gong Joins Local Chinese Community's Mid-Autumn Festival in Boston

On Sunday August 3, Falun Gong practitioners from the Boston area participated in the annual "Chinatown Mid-Autumn Celebration" organised by Chinatown Chinese Commerce Association. This is the largest activity in Chinatown. The Mayor of Boston, a Senator's representative, two County Mayors and many Chinese community leaders attended the opening ceremony and gave speeches.

Two traditional dances, the "Fan Dance" and "Flying Colourful Clouds" were performed onstage by members of Yale University Falun Gong Club.

The Falun Gong booth	Painting portraits

Child with a "Falun Dafa" balloon	Dance "Flying Colourful Clouds" in the rain

"Fan Dance"	Exercise demonstration in the rain

The Falun Gong booth was crowded with visitors, as well. More than five hundred "Falun Dafa is Good" balloons were passed out in less than half a day. The visitors could see children with colourful balloons almost everywhere in Chinatown. Artist practitioners painted portraits for visitors free and wrote people's names for them in traditional Chinese calligraphy. Many visitors wanted the exercise instruction tapes and Falun Dafa books. We could feel that the environment has changed. More and more people want to practise Falun Gong.

In the afternoon, when our performance "Flying Colourful Clouds" went onstage, it began to rain heavily. The rain did not stop the three performers. They smiled to the audience. The host was moved and took the lead to applaud for them and said to the audience, "let's applaud their art and devoted attitude to the arts." The audience seemed to also forget the rain. They didn't hide away and applauded warmly. Whether it was a coincidence or not, when the applause started, the rain suddenly became less. More and more members of the audience gathered around the stage. When the dance ended, the rain began to pour heavily.

When people ran to nearby stores for shelter, eight practitioners continued doing the exercises in the rain. The storm soaked their clothes but they smiled back at the storm. At this time, the loud and noisy music from the stage stopped. The exercise music was the only sound people could hear besides the raindrops. The people looked at the practitioners doing exercises in the rain. From the faces of the visitors, it seemed some of them were stunned, clearly admiring the practitioners. In this peaceful way, many local Chinese people came to experience the beauty and goodness of Falun Gong.