United States: Falun Gong Practitioners Celebrate Chinese New Year with the Local Chinese Communities

During the Chinese Spring Festival, Chinese communities in Seattle gathered to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. Though the irrational persecution of Falun Gong continues in China, in the society overseas where the governments respect human rights, Falun Gong practitioners have been more and more esteemed and supported by local Chinese communities. More and more overseas Chinese people have come to understand that Falun Dafa is a truly good practice, and they have seen that the persecution in China is disgraceful and evil.

New Year celebrations were held on January 24, the weekend after the Chinese Spring Festival, in Seattle's Chinatown. Different groups of Chinese people gave wonderful performances. Falun Gong practitioners' dance "Ode to the Lotus" was especially eye-catching. The dance expresses the lotus' sacredness and purity. It also signifies advancement in cultivation and the revealing the true meaning of life. The practitioners' beautiful performance won warm applause from the audience, and the inner meaning of the dance also appeared to leave a deep impression on the spectators.

At the Falun Dafa booth, practitioners displayed crafts imprinted with "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance", "Falun Dafa is Great!" and beautifully designed Dafa truth-clarifying Video-CDs in different languages. People of different races and nationalities lined up in front of the booth for handmade paper lotus flowers and to find out more information about Falun Gong. Many people signed their names to demand that the Chinese government immediately release detained Falun Gong practitioner and American citizen Dr. Charles Li.

In the Festival Park nearby, another group of Falun Dafa practitioners were demonstrating the exercises and clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa. The practitioners seized every opportunity to let more people learn the goodness of Falun Dafa and to raise awareness of the evil persecution. They helped more and more people make correct choices at this special historical moment.