(Clearwisdom.net) On the morning of May 10, 2003, the celebration of 2003 World Falun Dafa Day on the National Mall in Washington DC began. The cloudy sky with rain became clear while the practitioners' were setting up.
The activity started with an opening speech from a Western practitioner. He wished all a happy World Falun Dafa Day and briefly introduced Falun Dafa, its spread worldwide and the many benefits to practitioners and society.
Another practitioner sang a celebration song that she composed herself. Practitioners in classical dresses performed a graceful fairy dance. Young practitioners from the Minghui School sang songs composed by Dafa practitioners, catching the attention of many tourists. A Western practitioner's performance reciting poems with music demonstrating the great compassion, tolerance and righteous thoughts of Dafa practitioners facing brutal persecution in China was very moving.
At the same time, the Journey of Falun Dafa photo exhibition caught the eyes of many tourists. People looked at the pictures and read truth-clarifying literature. One tourist from mainland China said, "Actually, people in China know the truth. All Falun Gong practitioners I know are very good people."
The demonstration of the five-sets of exercises attracted many visitors to learn. The busy tourists watched Dafa practitoners' music and dance performance, exercise demonstration, and posters and pictures. A western couple stood in front of the photo exhibition for a long time and when the gentleman saw a Dafa practitioner with a button with words "I support Falun Gong', he asked where he could buy one. The practitoner took it off and gave it to him generously. He was very happy and later started learning the exercises from the practitioners doing the demonstration.
In the afternoon, it suddenly became cloudy and started to rain heavily. At this moment, a practitioner said to all others firmly, "Today we come here to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day. We must not accept any interference. Let's send forth righteous thoughts together to eliminate it." After the practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts for 15 minutes, the rain stopped and sunshine came out again. The remaining activities were carried out smoothly. The weather forecast predicted that it would rain the whole day. Under the practitioners' righteous thoughts, the celebration activities were successful.
