(Clearwisdom. Net) On July 4, the annual National Independence Day Parade was held in Washington DC, celebrating the 233^rd birthday of US. Due to the ongoing recession, many small towns and cities had to cancel or reduce the scale of local celebrations, consequently, there were even more tourists in DC to participate in celebrations there.

This was the eighth time that Falun Gong practitioners were invited to participate in the National Independence Day Parade. The Falun Gong entry included the Divine Land Marching Band, a flag group and a group of waist drummers. It was the largest entry in the entire parade. The Divine Land Marching Band featured 150 members in bright uniforms. They performed "Falun Dafa Is Good," "Fa Rectifies Universe," "Drums and Trumpets Shake the World in Ten Directions," "The Descent of the Holy King," and "America the Beautiful." Their performance fascinated the audience of tens of thousands people who rewarded the participants with heated applause, exclamation and cheers.

A Canadian tourist and his son gave high remarks to the Falun Gong entry and said that the group was "spectacular!" The son is part of a university' student government and said that he invited local practitioners to give a presentation and thus knew about the brutal persecution very well. "We are glad to see that they can freely practice in the US."