(Minghui.org) Practitioners were invited to participate in the Elk Grove Multicultural Festival held on Saturday, August 27. Thousands of people in the surrounding area attended the popular festival and got a chance to learn about Falun Dafa.

Many people said they were happy to see Falun Dafa at the festival again. They expressed their concern over human rights violations and the persecution of Falun Dafa in China.

A Falun Dafa practitioner participates in the Elk Grove Multicultural Festival Parade.

Local residents learn about Falun Dafa.

Bobby and his wife, two local residents who had a booth at the festival, came to the Falun Dafa booth to learn all about it. Bobby’s wife said she enjoys meditating and was interested in learning more about Falun Dafa. When the couple was told about the persecution in China, Bobby said that he knew the communist party was the most serious threat to democracy and freedom in the world.

Bobby and his wife learn about Falun Dafa.

A woman told a practitioner that she likes Chinese culture, and that her son-in-law is a basketball coach in China. After the practitioner told her about Falun Dafa, the woman was interested in learning how to practice and asked where the local group-exercise site was. She took some informational flyers and said she would share them with her son-in-law.

Background: What Is Falun Dafa and Why the Persecution?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in over 100 countries and regions worldwide. Millions of people who have embraced the teachings, which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and have learned the five exercises, have experienced improved health and well-being.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and on July 20, 1999, he issued an order to eradicate the practice.

Under Jiang’s personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organization with the power to override the police and judicial systems and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Dafa.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners as a result of the persecution over the past 23 years. The actual number is believed to be much higher. Countless practitioners have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply China’s organ transplant industry.