New Jersey: Falun Dafa Takes Root (Photos)

In mid-September each year, residents of Essex County in New Jersey celebrate their annual "Newark People's Festival" in the state capital, Newark. What is new in this year's "Newark People's Festival" is that the Essex County Council, state representatives of the city of Newark, representatives of the city of Irvington in Essex County, and representatives of the city of East Orange as well as representatives of the election district of Newark proclaimed this year's September 14, the "Newark People's Festival" as "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance Day."

At 11 a.m. on September 14, a representative of Falun Gong practitioners declared the celebration open. Practitioners first read the resolutions issued by Essex County and the city of Newark proclaiming September 14 as "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance Day." Then State Representative Mr. Willis Edward's assistant, Mr. Dwayne Harris, read the resolution of celebrating the first "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance Day" on behalf of Mr. Edward. Art performances followed the reading.

To celebrate the first "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance Day" of Essex County, Falun Gong practitioners prepared beautiful performances. Practitioners from New York City performed the wonderful Lion Dance and graceful Lotus Flower Dance. Female practitioners from Connecticut performed the beautiful Flying Heavenly Girl Dance. Practitioners from Taiwan performed China martial arts that tempered strength with gentleness. New Jersey practitioners performed a trio of flutes and cello with exquisite skill. Their brilliant performances won round after round of applause from the audience. Afterwards, practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. The audience was deeply attracted to the practice. Some people even followed the practitioners' movements. To meet the audience's requests, practitioners taught the exercises in small groups.

Many citizens came to the Falun Gong booth to ask where the practice sites are. An elderly Chinese gentleman especially came over to ask where he could learn Falun Gong. In addition, practitioners also set up a calligraphy booth and a handicraft booth to write "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" for local residents and to display self-made handicraft arts [editor – all Falun Gong activities are organised by volunteers and are free of charge. The calligraphy and handicraft arts were not for sale, but were given to people to show them the beauty of Falun Gong].

Nick, a resident of Newark, told us that he was a student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He knew about Falun Gong for a long time, and came especially to attend the celebration. Nick also told us that he likes Falun Gong very much not only because Falun Gong is conducive to good health, but it also helps people to improve their moral standard. He said that he would later go to the group practice site to practice Falun Gong.

Three years ago, the Chinese dictator launched the campaign to persecute Falun Gong. The persecution is now extending to the whole world. New Jersey was also affected by the persecution. At that time, most practitioners in New Jersey just began their cultivation, but they withstood the pressure and went town by town to introduce Falun Dafa and clarify the truth about Dafa. This allowed local government officials and people to understand that Falun Dafa is good, that practitioners are good people who strive to live by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. One after another, many government officials stood up to support Falun Gong and to condemn the Jiang regime's brutal persecution. Some government officials directly wrote to the Chinese government and Chinese Consulates and Embassies, urging them to stop persecuting Falun Gong. Over the past 3 years since August 1999 when Falun Gong received the first proclamation from the state of New Jersey, Falun Gong has received over 200 proclamations, resolutions and support letters issued by all levels of government officials in New Jersey. Falun Dafa has received broad support from the people and all levels of government in the state of New Jersey.

It has been over a hundred years since Chinese people started coming to the United States. Along with large number of Chinese people coming to the US, many splendid parts of traditional Chinese culture such as martial arts, acupuncture and Chinese medicine have also been introduced to the US and are gradually being accepted by the American people. Yet it is rare that something is accepted and welcomed by the American people within only a few short years, as rapidly and widely as Falun Gong. Shouldn't Chinese people be proud of this? During this celebration of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance Day," we once again witnessed the American people's appreciation of Falun Gong. Meanwhile, we were also delighted to see that Falun Dafa, while going through brutal persecution, is deeply and solidly embedded into people's hearts and into this beautiful Garden State.