(Clearwisdom.net) On July 1, 2006, the English football (soccer) team played Portugal in the quarter-final of the World Cup in Gelsenkirchen, and the fascinating game attracted tens of thousands of football fans to this small, unknown city in Germany. In order to express some of the beauty experienced by practitioners of Falun Dafa as well as to expose the brutal persecution in China, practitioners from the Nordrhein-Westfalen and Frankfurt areas of Germany, together with some practitioners from the Netherlands, held for the first time a grand parade and other activities in this city. The activities started at 9:30 in the morning, and finished at 6:00 in the evening.
 Grand Parade of Falun Gong practitioners |
 Waist-drummers |
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The activities were divided into two parts: an information desk and the parade. The information desk was set up in the square in front of the Music Theatre in the city center. This place was also the gathering place for practitioners as well as the place where the parade started and finished. The parade started at 12 noon and finished at 3:00 p.m.. At about 11:00 a.m., three local media companies came to the Falun Gong information desk and interviewed the practitioners who organized the activities. They listened to the explanations about Falun Gong carefully, and then took many photos before leaving at noon.
The information desk attracted the attention of many tourists and football fans, and many people signed the petition to condemn the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the CCP upon learning the truth. A kind-hearted German couple decided to join the activities and said that they would do anything to help Falun Gong practitioners. They stayed in front of the information desk together with several practitioners for three hours while others were taking part in the parade.
 Signing the petition to condemn the CCP persecution of Falun Gong |
 Demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises |
The parade was led by a team of waist drummers. The sound of "Falun Dafa is Good" reverberated far through the air together with the sound of the drums. More than ten women, wearing colorful costumes, danced gracefully to a specially composed piece of music. They were followed by people holding large banners exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, and practitioners dressed in white who were holding photos of practitioners persecuted to death in China. Moving slowly with the parade was a truck bearing an anti-torture exhibition, where several practitioners demonstrated some of the torture methods used by the CCP on practitioners and also performed mock operations to tell people about the organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners currently being carried out by the CCP. Banners with the messages, "Stop the CCP torture and live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners!" "CCP, stop persecuting Falun Gong!" were hung on the sides of the truck. On a day which seems to belong to the football fans, the parade attracted the attention of all the people. Cheering could be heard from the windows of the houses, from the cafs and restaurants, and coming from cars. There were so many people who applauded the parade and asked for leaflets, that the practitioners who were giving out leaflets could not deal with the demand, prompting two practitioners who were supposed to be dancing to help give out leaflets.
After the parade finished at about 3:00 p.m., the practitioners continued to work together as a group and each played their own part perfectly; some were demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises, while others went to the crowd to continue their efforts to tell people about Falun Gong and the persecution. The compassionate heart of the practitioners made these events a true success.
http://clearharmony.net/articles/200607/34350.html
