(Clearwisdom.net) The Divine Land Marching Band was invited to participate in parades and other activities celebrating the New Year in London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and it has brought Falun Dafa's magnificence and New Year's greetings to people around the world. One of the marching band's best performances was in London.
Practitioners demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises |
About 500,000 people saw the group's performances, including the exercise demonstration, the flag dance, the traditional Chinese fan dance, and the beautiful float promoting Divine Performing Arts' Chinese New Year Spectacular.
The Divine Land Marching Band played "Falun Dafa Is Good", "Drums and Trumpets Shake the World in Ten Directions" and Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" along the parade route. When the Falun Gong procession passed by the host's platform, he introduced Falun Gong to the spectators. The spectators enjoyed the performance as well as the paper lotus flowers that the practitioners passed out.
The parade lasted for about 90 minutes, and it started to rain towards the end of the parade. Nonetheless, the practitioners were still in high spirits and after the parade, the event organizer told some practitioners that he was amazed by the Divine Land Marching Band's wonderful performance. He added that he was pleased to see Falun Gong practitioners participating in the parade, and that the Falun Gong group's performance has gotten better each year.
The members of the marching band were glad that they were able to display the magnificence of Falun Dafa to so many spectators. After the parade, a British girl by the name of Christine, who joined the band and participated in the parade for the first time, said that she saw the spectators greeting the practitioners all along the route. A young practitioner from Taiwan, who performed overseas for the first time, said that she was moved by the spectators' warm reception. She was proud of being able to overcome some difficulties to come to London. Mr. Wang, a member of the marching band who has participated in various events around Europe, said that he saw many people responding well to the performance.
After the parade, the practitioners went to a nearby park for group photos, which would be sent to Master Li as New Year's greetings.
The following evening, Tony, a practitioner who participated in an around-the-clock peaceful protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in London, met an elderly German couple who are members of the Free Tibet campaign and stage a protest at the Embassy every Wednesday evening. The couple had already known about the Chinese Communist regime's persecution against Falun Gong. They greeted Tony warmly and complimented the practitioners' fine performance.