Batlow, a small country town in the Snowy Mountains of Australia, is famous
for it’s lovely mountain scenery and crisp juicy apples. On October 23rd it staged
its first Apple Blossom Festival for many years. It was a resounding success
with a myriad of displays and stalls.
A display for Falun Dafa/Petals of
Peace was organised, and practitioners travelled from Canberra and Goulburn for
the day. Many beautiful origami lotus flowers were handed out, with a small flyer
clarifying the truth folded and tucked into each one. People were very glad to
receive this gift, with many teenage girls coming back for more to give to their
friends and relatives, and to learn how to fold them.
People were very
interested in and enjoyed watching the demonstration of the Falun Dafa exercises.
During one of these displays, a group of youths were poking a bit of fun at the
exercise display, but after being given some lotus flowers to give to their mums,
they politely said thank you and stopped their jeering to quietly watch instead.
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Batlow
is a very small town where a lot of people know each other. So far there is one
practitioner family in Batlow including two little girls who go to the local school.
When applying for the stall, the Festival Committee was presented with a folder
explaining the reasons behind "Petals of Peace" and the feedback was
very positive with many saying what a poignant story it was. A teacher talked
at length about the fact that a lot of children in the country towns don’t get
a chance to learn about what is happening in the world, and saw this truth clarifying
activity as a valid educational experience.
The day before the Festival,
one of the teachers asked all the children in her class to make sure they looked
out for what the little girl’s Mum (a Falun Dafa practitioner) was doing for her
display and to all report back on Monday what it was.
At the festival, a
lot of the teachers from the school received a lotus flower with a flyer in it,
and in the week after the Festival, the nine year old child practitioner was asked
to teach the whole class how to fold a lotus flower, which she did and was given
a merit award.
Posting date: 13/Nov/2004
Original article date: 12/Nov/2004
Category:
Events
