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By a Sydney Falun
Dafa Practitioners
From February 7 to 9 2003, the annual traditional
Vietnamese New Year Celebration was held at the Warwick Farm Horse Racing
Field west of Sydney. The event was organized by Vietnamese Community
of New South Wales province and it has nearly 100,000 people came to the
event. This year, it was the 22nd celebration.
This is also the third year that Falun Dafa practitioners
participated in the celebration. Directly facing the stage was the booth
rent by Falun Dafa practitioners. They carefully decorated the booth and
displayed Dafa related materials in Vietnamese, English and Chinese languages.
At two outsides of the booth, it was the “The Journey of Falun Dafa” picture
show. Inside the booth, the wall was decorated with photos of practitioners
doing exercises in many countries. The practitioners took turns to demonstrate
the exercises and sent forth righteous thought on top of each hour. The
display attracted bunches of visitors stopped to watch. People asked for
information about Falun Dafa and consulted with the practitioners all
the time. Many Vietnamese asked for the schedule of group exercises and
requested the exercises teaching CD in Vietnamese. One night, a young
Vietnamese talked with a practitioner for a long time. Later, he entered
the booth and sat down to discuss with two Vietnamese Australian practitioners.
They talked and talked until the field closed at mid-night. In the celebration
area, people are willing to accept and asked for Falun Dafa materials
and politely greeted to practitioners “Happy New Year!” The materials
were distributed quickly. After three days, about 50,000 copies of materials
were sent out. In the evening, the practitioners played video of exercises
teaching by the Teacher and truth-clarifying VCDs. The organizer of the
event, city councilman of Bankstown, Mr. Nhan Tran came to the Falun Gong
booth and talked to the practitioner. He said, “Falun Gong practices Truthfulness
Compassion Tolerance, no violence, very peaceful. We fully support Falun
Gong.”
Many council members had booths in the field. They
came to the Falun Dafa booth to meet the practitioners. They were very
willing to accept Dafa related materials and initiatively signed their
names on the form for “Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance” monument.
This year, the practitioners were invited to perform
on the stage and at the Vietnam Sydney radio station for the first time.
On February 9, 2003 practitioners performed twice at shortly after 3PM
and after 7PM. They performed Tang Dynasty Costumes, Pudu dance and little
practitioners from Minghui School demonstrated the exercises. Before the
performance at 3PM, practitioner Vela briefly introduced Falun Dafa to
the audiences. She said, “There are about 100 million people practices
Falun Gong in the world. We followed the principle of Truthfulness Compassion
Tolerance. At this New Year time, we want to appreciate the organizers,
the Vietnam Community of New South Wales that gave us the chance. We want
to thank Vietnamese Sydney Radio for your support to Falun Gong and bring
the Falun Gong to Vietnamese people. We wish all of you will save the
three words Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance in your heart and have a
very happy new year.” The director of Vietnamese Sydney Radio Mr. Joachim
Nguyen translated the English to Vietnamese at the same time and live
broadcast the Falun Dafa performances. (Note: this radio station has a
Falun Dafa introductory program every week over the last 6 months.)
After the second performance at 7PM, during the
loud applause, the celebration organizing unit presented flowers to the
Falun Dafa group as well as a “Red Envelop”, a tradition for good fortune
in the New Year. The practitioners decided to use the 100 Australian dollar
in the envelope to print more truth-clarifying materials so as to let
more Vietnamese people know Falun Gong and the truth of the persecution.
The practitioners were moved by the support from
Vietnamese Community and city residents. They sincerely wished the kindhearted
people have a happy and beautiful future.
Posting date:15/Feb/2003
Original article date:13/Feb/2003
Category:Event
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