The Granny Smith Festival is a wonderful community event organised by Ryde council, celebrating the origins of the Granny Smith Apple. Last year’s festival attracted a record crowd of over 60,000 and it has become one of Sydney’s biggest and most well-known festivals.
This year, the Falun Dafa group was also invited to join the festival parade and celebration on Saturday 18 October.
Among the various floats and exhibits in the parade, there was a beautiful lotus vehicle with both young and old practitioners demonstrating the Falun Dafa exercises. The lotus float was preceded by the beautiful Tang Dynasty dancers. A group of cheerful drummers in traditional chinese costume followed along behind the float symbolising the beginning of the harvest.
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The streets were crowded with people who gave applause when the Falun Dafa group passed by and many took photos and happily said it’s something so beautiful. Many Chinese happily waved to Falun Dafa practitioners and accepted flyers from the group.
After the parade, Falun Dafa practitioner again demonstrated the practice at the information desk, and explained about the persecution that is happening in China. Most people were willing to hear the truth and were happy to sign their names on the petition in support of stopping the inhuman persecution on innocent Falun Dafa practitioners in China.
Posting date: 19/Oct/2003
Original article date: 18/Oct/2003
Category: Australian News
