Germany: Falun Dafa Practitioners Participate in Hamburg’s Altonale Cultural Festival

Between June the 19th and June the 24th, Hamburg celebrated the Altonale cultural festival. Despite the unpredictable weather, more than 500 thousand people attended one of North Germany’s most popular celebrations of culture. One could visit a number of associations' information booths as well as lively cultural programmes, where there was music, dance and much more to experience

This year, Falun Gong took part in the Altonale once again. Practitioners from Hamburg, Bremen and Aurich took the opportunity to inform the visitors about Falun Gong and the persecution of Falun Gong in China. This year Falun Gong was included in the festival’s activities, as it registered its booth on time. Many local practitioners could not be present, as they were attending the 2004 European Falun Dafa Experience Sharing conference in Vienna. Therefore, the practitioners' dancing and singing performances, which were originally scheduled, had to be cancelled and another programme offered on short notice. We decided that instead of the dance performance, given the short time frame, to teach how to fold lotus flowers from coloured paper. The children and even the grown-ups enjoyed this tremendously. While the children were busy with the handicrafts, the parents took the opportunity to view the persecution photo exhibition and watch the exercise demonstration. It was wonderful that the children were also interested in viewing the pictures and watching the exercises.

Folding paper lotus flowers was an excellent opportunity to let people know about the truth and bring enjoyment to the visitors at the same time. First, people were only interested in learning the folding technique. Later on, they opened up and wanted to hear about Falun Gong and the persecution.This year, I came to realise the importance of participating in such festivals. We need to take every opportunity to tell people about the persecution. It also became clear to me that one needs only a few practitioners with compassionate hearts to be successful.