Falun Dafa Practitioners from around southeast Queensland joined the Toowoomba
‘Carnival of Flowers’ Parade for the fifth consecutive year on Saturday, 18 September
2004. This is one of the largest parades and festivals in southeast Queensland,
with an estimated 140,000 people attending.
As this was also the 100th year
anniversary for the city of Toowoomba, Queensland’s Premier Mr Peter Beattie attended
the festivities and was a guest of honour at the parade. As our float and procession
went past the main announcer’s stand, Mr Beattie smiled and waved to the practitioners.
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Floats
in this year’s parade had to be largely decorated with fresh flowers. Practitioners
in the procession wore flower corsages and our Chinese dancers were adorned with
beautiful flower wreathes in their hair. The beauty and elegance of our procession
had a very positive impact on the crowd along the route, with much enthusiastic
waving and supportive comments. A local practitioner met a man she knows from
the local radio station in the crowd and shared a few words with him. He was most
impressed with our procession, saying, “Your presentation is great! Could
you please thank everyone in the group for bringing something so beautiful to
Toowoomba!”
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A
woman was reading out the words “Falun Dafa” and another lady sitting
next to her replied, “Yes, Falun Dafa. I know it is becoming very popular
and lots of people are doing it. There is some persecution going on in China.
It is so stupid. How can you persecute something so beautiful? After hearing that
Jiang Zemin, who instigated the persecution, is being sued in many countries,
one of them replied, “I’m not surprised. I hope he gets what he deserves.”
As
one of the announcers was sharing with the crowd about our presentation, he paused
as our “The World Needs Truth Compassion Tolerance” banner went past,
and then said, “Isn’t this so true. The world really does need these principles
of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance.”
The parade was a grand success
and the beauty of Dafa delighted many thousands of people. On the way home, a
couple of practitioners stopped at a fruit and vegetable market, still dressed
in their yellow outfits, and people who had attended the parade positively remarked
about our participation and asked questions about Dafa. More and more people are
indeed being touched by ‘Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance’.
Posting
date: 23/Sep/2004
Original article date: 21/Sep/2004
Category: Event
