United States: Practitioners Brighten Tallahassee Holiday Parade

On December 6 practitioners participated in the Tallahassee holiday parade. Tallahassee is the state capitol, and this parade traditionally has more than 100 groups and thousands of spectators. Though the weather was very cold and windy because of the season's first cold snap, about 30 Falun Gong practitioners in beautiful exercise suits and Tang attire, including 2 young children, participated the parade. Among them, there were Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, as well as American practitioners.

The parade started at 7:30pm. Practitioners' procession was led by a banner which read "Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa--Mind Body Cultivation System" and then three "Zhen - Truthfulness, Shan - Compassion, Ren - Forbearance" banners. After the banners, eight female practitioners in beautiful Tang attire danced lightly in songs composed by practitioners. The dancers were followed by a decorated float, which had two beautiful lotus flowers with two practitioners meditating in them, and another four practitioners on the float continuously demonstrated the four standing exercises. The response from the spectators was quite good. When the Falun Gong procession passed the rostrum, the host introduced Falun Gong and exclaimed: "They are so beautiful!" A female student cheered in Chinese: "I love Falun Gong!" Another young man yelled out, also in Chinese, "Falun Dafa is great!" Their warm greetings were the best gift that practitioners received during the chilly night. The practitioners handing out fliers often found themselves short on fliers and had to run back to the float for more.

Falun Gong was introduced to Florida in 1996. Today, from Tallahassee to Jacksonville, and even down to Miami at the far south, one can find numerous Falun Gong practice sites. This parade was the practitioners' first large scale event in the state capitol.