March 30, 2002

Dafa Practitioners from Greece

(Clearwisdom.net) March 25 is Greece's National Day, and there were many celebration activities in downtown Athens. On the square in front of City Hall, there were many Dafa practitioners wearing yellow seen among the crowd. There were over 100 practitioners from Taiwan and Sweden practitioners who came to Athens after participating in the Geneva activity. They cooperated with the local practitioners and clarified the truth to kind-hearted Greek people to take advantage of the precious opportunity.

Some of the practitioners distributed truth-clarifying literature, while others demonstrated the exercises, attracting many predestined people. Many Greek people wanted to learn the exercises immediately. There were many Chinese people wanting to buy the book and find out about the practice sites. A few of the many stories about this activity are recounted below.

One day before we arrived, the local TV station broadcast a program of 10-15 minutes introducing Falun Dafa. When we handed out flyers, some people remembered Falun Dafa at once and gave us a thumbs-up, "You are the best!"

We handed out flyers along the streets after the parade. Many people asked for more flyers when we could not give out the flyers fast enough. Out of every 10 people, 8 or 9 accepted the flyer, about 5 or 6 read it immediately and about 1 or 2 asked about practice sites and wanted to learn the exercises.

When we practiced the exercises in a designated place at set times, there were dozens of onlookers. A group of kids started to mimic the movements, and one practitioner stepped forward to teach them. A boy said before he left, "After school tomorrow, I will practice the exercises again!"

A person working at a Chinese store asked for more than 10 truth-clarifying VCD's from us to mail to his relatives in China after he found out the truth of the persecution. He said, "I will encourage everyone in Greece to learn Falun Gong!"

One hundred practitioners participated in the parade. The parade route was on streets only for pedestrians, and there were many onlookers. Some onlookers asked about Falun Dafa when seeing the beginning of our procession, read the introduction by the time half of our procession had passed by and applauded us at the end of our procession.

A Greek police chief said after seeing our parade, "Don't let them leave before I arrive. I' want to watch their exercise demonstration." After he arrived at the designated place and watched our exercise demonstration, he told other police officers, "They are kind people. You can leave now." He stayed until the end of the demonstration and left reluctantly.

All major Greek media gave positive reports about the parade and Dafa. All major Greek TV stations including Mega, Antenna, Alpha, Seven and Alter, and all newspapers covered the event on site. Their reports talked about our parade, the exercises and Dafa's worldwide spread, and mentioned the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Many Greek people discovered that Falun Dafa is good on that day.

During our parade, police officers cleared the way ahead of us and directed traffic along the route. The Athens city government also supported us. The parade ended on the square in front of City Hall and was followed by group practice and media interviews, which did not finish until the afternoon. During the evening experience sharing, the local practitioners told us that they did not have to apply for a permit for the parade. The Chinese Embassy called the local police department every day to exert pressure on the police. A police officer said, "We came to protect you, as we know who is good and who is bad."