Austria: Celebrating World Falun Dafa Day

On May 12th, 2007, Austrian Falun Gong practitioners came to Stephen Square in Vienna to set up an information desk, a picture exhibition and celebrate the 8th World Falun Dafa Day, which is on May 13th. Practitioners also set up a table to teach people how to fold paper lotus flowers; many children, as well as adults, were very interested in the beautiful lotus flowers which represent the cultivator's nature of “not being tarnished by the dirty environment”

Viewing the picture exhibition and the demonstration of Falun Gong exercises	Reading the information posters	Signing a petition to call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong

Stephen Square, located in the centre of Vienna, is the very place every tourist must pay a visit to, it is also the first choice for various organisations to hold activities and for artists on the street to demonstrate their talent. Austrian practitioners prepared materials about Falun Gong in over twenty languages to distribute to tourists from all over the world. While celebrating World Falun Dafa Day, practitioners also revealed the truth about the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China and exposed the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) atrocity of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners.

Many tourists’ attitude changed after viewing the picture exhibition and listening to explanations from practitioners. Two ladies passing by seemed not to be interested at the beginning, however they signed the petition after listening to the truth. They finally wished Falun Gong practitioners success in stopping this persecution as early as possible. They also expressed thanks to Falun Gong practitioners for telling them the truth.

Several tourists from Graz, Austria, said that, there are also some Falun Gong practitioners who do the exercises in a park in the city where they came from, they had already understood Falun Gong and knew about the evil persecution.

More and more people came to see the picture exhibition and gave their names to oppose the persecution. At the time the activity was going to conclude, there were still many people who turned up to ask for leaflets and sign the petition.