Bulgaria: Celebrating World Falun Dafa Day in Sofia

The 13th of May was the first sunny and warm day in the capital of Bulgaria for months. The city municipality gave permission for the holding of a World Falun Dafa Day event and supported the practitioners despite interference from the Chinese Embassy, as was revealed later by the city officials.

A small exhibition was arranged at the entrance of the downtown city park Borisova Gradina in Sofia. The exhibition consisted of six poster boards showing the history of Falun Gong all over the world, a big poster detailing the atrocities of the Communist regime in China harvesting of organs of Falun Gong practitioners in labour camps and two big banners stating “Stop the persecution of Falun Gong” and “Falun Gong is good”. Next to the poster was a petition for people to sign calling for an end to the persecution.

People came to find out more by reading the posters and signing the petition

After hearing about Falun Gong, one woman exclaimed: “I know about Falun Gong from the US. They are very active there. I admire them. I am very happy that in Bulgaria there are also people who don’t think of themselves first.”

A man accompanied by his little daughter said: “I will sign the petition. As long as Falun Gong is persecuted by communists, it is clear to me. Communists don’t like people who are open-minded and hard to manipulate”. He encouraged his daughter to sign the petition too.

Children received balloons on which was written “Falun Dafa is good” and handmade lotus flowers, symbols of the purity and beauty of Falun Gong. One national TV station conducted interviews with a practitioner for the evening news programme.

Practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and were interviewed for a TV news programme

Practitioners demonstrated the exercises and taught them to several people who wished to learn on the spot. Some were interested to learn about the teachings of Falun Gong whilst others wanted to talk more about the reasons for the persecution. Most people were very positive and supportive. It was easy for them to understand why Falun Gong is being persecuted by the Communist regime in China, as Bulgarians all underwent Communism sixteen years ago.

Some people wanted to learn the exercises on the spot

People were disgusted by the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party and asked how they could help. They were eager to learn about how Falun Dafa made one hundred million people around the world more healthy, peaceful, tolerant and harmonious. All shared their hope that the persecution will stop as soon as possible so that innocent practitioners can be saved and so that the Chinese people will have freedom of speech, belief and association.