On September 23, 2000 nearly forty Falun Dafa practitioners, including ten children, from Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba presented Falun Dafa to nearly 100,000 people in the grand annual parade for the opening of the Flower Carnival in Toowoomba. Among the crowd, many people were from nearby regions, and most of them had never heard of Falun Dafa before.
That day, practitioners from other places arrived early in the morning and held a group practice together at Picnic Point, a tourist resort in Toowoomba, and distributed Dafa materials to passing visitors.
The grand parade started at mid-day and there was a leading car playing Falun Dafa music through a loudspeaker, while practitioners walked behind. The practitioners were all wearing yellow or blue-coloured T-shirts on which was printed "Falun Dafa is Good ," "Truthfulness- Benevolence- Forbearance ," "China: Stop Persecuting Falun Gong ," "China: Free the jailed Falun Gong Practitioners ". The practitioners were holding up banners during the parade and waved back frequently to the cheering crowd. When the practitioners walked past the rostrum in front of the City Council, the master of ceremonies introduced Falun Dafa and Zhen-Shan-Ren (truthfulness, benevolence, forbearance) to the public, and the crowd cheered loudly. For many, that was the first time they had ever heard about the universal principle of Zhen-Shan-Ren.
After the parade, our practitioners distributed Dafa materials to many people in the Queens Park area, telling them about Falun Dafa and the Chinese governments brutal crackdown and persecution of practitioners in China. A coach-load of tourists from China also received information regarding the true story of Falun Dafa.
At the end of the days events, the practitioners held a group practice in the Queens Park Botanic Garden. All the practitioners participating felt grateful for the opportunity they had to be able to promote Dafa, to so many people, and to tell people the true story of Falun Gong.
Category: April 25 Events
