Australia: Falun Gong Adds Brightness to Sydney's Apple Festival

On October 18, 2003, the Granny Smith Festival was held in Eastwood, Sydney. It is the largest festival in North Sydney. Last year, Australia Prime Minister John Howard held an opening ceremony for this festival and attracted more than 60,000 people. The scale this year was grander than last year. It is to remember Ms. Granny Smith and her husband, who made great contributions to the community as the earliest immigrants. As early as 177 years ago, the Granny Smith couple emigrated from Europe with their agricultural technique. They bought a farm of about 24 acres in today's Eastwood, and grew a variety of fruits. The apples they cultivated are still people's favourite, so the festival is called the Apple Festival.

At this years festival there were a total of 280 market stalls, and more than 40 groups of different nationalities participated in the parade, which displayed Australia's diversity. There were many Chinese groups in the parade. A Falun Gong group, Taiwan group, Hong Kong group, Service Association for the Aged and Chinese groups with religious backgrounds. With the reputation of the Apple Festival and its grand ceremony, many Chinese people attended.

Taking this opportunity, practitioners introduced Dafa and clarified the truth about the persecution. The Falun Dafa procession was grand, solemn and won warm praise from spectators. Two tall Western practitioners led the procession, holding a Falun Dafa banner with golden words on a blue background that shone in the sunshine. Following them was a group of practitioners in Tang Dynasty costumes, and then there was a Fan Dance group. Practitioners in pink shirts holding rose fans danced to the beautiful music of "Falun Dafa is Good". There were a group of drummers in golden yellow traditional suits behind them. Last in the procession was the floral float, on which Western practitioners and children sat on handmade lotuses, which symbolised purity and they demonstrated the exercises. This attracted the attention of the audience, especially the Chinese audience. They were amazed and one Chinese person said, "Look, these beautiful Westerners also practise Falun Gong."

When the Falun Gong procession passed by the main stage, the host of the Apple Festival introduced Falun Gong to the spectators as follows, "Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese qigong cultivation group, following the principle of 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.' They offer free exercises instruction. If anyone wants to learn, please come to their booth."

Some children sitting on the float repeatedly waved to the crowds of people, who also waved back to greet them. Practitioners felt that the environment was quite different from the previous two years.

That day, a local newspaper reporter told a practitioner that the Dafa float left a deep impression on people. Many people came to the Falun Dafa booth to say that the procession was beautiful. A practitioner told the reporter that from activities over the past four years, practitioners have learnt a lot from other groups, so they have continually made improvements. It is the hope of practitioners that they can play a good role of bridging Eastern and Western culture and that they could introduce the treasure of Eastern culture--Falun Gong to the West, so that more people can benefit from it.

Practitioners distributed a large number of truth-clarifying flyers that day. Many people came to the booth to sign their names to rescue relatives of Australian citizens who suffer persecution for practising Falun Gong. Early in the morning while practitioners were arranging the booth, one lady saw the signature display board and walked up to it to sign her name. She said, "Thank you for giving me this opportunity to help those persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China." The practitioners there were all moved by her words.

The activity demonstrated the coordination and cooperation between all of the practitioners. Regardless of whether it was holding banners or demonstrating the exercises, everybody happily worked together. Some practitioners even drove more than one and a half hours to participate in this activity.