Belgium: Lotus Flowers Blossom at the Hobby Market in Hasselt

During the weekend (from Friday November 10th until the 13th) we had two activities that attracted the public:

1… Chinese Calligraphy.
2… Origami lotus flowers: petals of peace project.

Lots of people were interested in having their names written in Chinese. The words Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance were stamped next to the Chinese characters on the paper.

The activity how to fold a lotus flower was a gigantic success. Practitioners explained how to fold the flowers and took the opportunity to talk in depth about Falun Gong and the persecution.

On Saturday and Sunday practitioners were invited to give a demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises in the afternoon.

Our presence at the Hobby market in Hasselt was a great success. The practitioners explained how to make the lotus flower over and over again and at the same time they told the people about the purpose of the flower and the persecution. As soon one group of people was done with the flower making another one was ready to sit down and start.

Many people were astonished to see that they did not have to pay anything for it. A lot of people asked this question: ‘How much do I have to pay for it?’ Practitioners answered that the price would be that “we would be thankful if you tell others about Falun Gong and the persecution that’s going on in China, that the persecution is wrong and that we need them to help us to stop it urgently”. People seemed to agree with it.

On Monday afternoon a journalist from the local newspaper Het Belang van Limburg came to our stand with a cameraman who took pictures of our stand. The journalist told me that they were looking for the stands which attracted people the most and which were not after profit. A picture with a short explanation appeared in the newspaper.

Our stand looked very nice and we think that we gave a good impression.

Some people showed interest in going to the practice site in the city where they came from, many people were from different cities even from the French speaking area, from Holland and Germany. Two days later in Diepenbeek a practice site near Hasselt, some of them already showed up.