Belgium: Promoting Falun Dafa at the Mano Mundo Festival

During the weekend of 9 and 10 May 2009, Falun Gong practitioners from Belgium promoted the practice at Mano Mundo, a global intercultural and sustainable festival located in Boom near Antwerp. This year about 87,000 people visited the festival. Many people were informed about the beauty of Falun Dafa, and about the human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in China.

At the booth, practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and handed out flyers and paper lotus flowers. In order to help stop the persecution in China, practitioners printed a postcard that people can send to the Prime Minister of Belgium, asking their country’ leader to take action to stop the persecution. Many visitors received it and promised that they would send it.

A Tai Chi master who’s been teaching Tai Chi for about 15 years visited the Falun Gong booth. He said he had come across Falun Dafa many times before in other places. When he saw Falun Gong again, he decided to buy the books Zhuan Falun and Falun Gong. A few others also bought the books.

A 14 year old boy came to the Falun Gong booth and asked if he could learn the exercises. He joined the group of practitioners who were doing the exercises, and from the beginning he could feel the energy. Later on, he spontaneously started handing out flyers to tell passersby about the human rights abuses that the Chinese Communist Party have committed against innocent Falun Gong practitioners in China.

A practitioner was talking about Falun Gong to an older lady when she suddenly asked, “Is it possible that you are sending out some kind of energy while you’re talking to me?” She said that she could feel the energy very strongly and she could also feel it coming from the practitioners who were demonstrating the exercises. After hearing more about Falun Gong she became very interested.

A couple from Antwerp told a practitioner about their daughter who studied and worked in China for many years. They saw firsthand how people in China live in fear. When they were going to visit Tiananmen Square in Beijing their daughter said to them: “When you see people standing with their hands up high, whatever you do, don’t stand too close to them and don’t take any pictures or you’ll definitely get into a lot of trouble.” They also knew the stories of organ harvesting and forced labour camps in China. They said: “It’s such a shame that such horrible things happen in such a beautiful country.”

Many visitors already knew about Falun Gong and the persecution in China. Another couple didn’t know what Falun Dafa exactly was, but they saw the Shen Yun performance and knew that this show was presented by the Falun Dafa Association, so they were glad to hear what Falun Dafa exactly is.