(Minghui.org) The Festival des Traditions du Monde de Sherbrooke (World Traditions Festival) is a multi-day celebration held every August in Sherbrooke, Quebec. It is one of the biggest festivals in Sherbrooke, the sixth largest city in Quebec and a well-known college town. The region is surrounded by mountains and rivers and is a popular tourist destination.

This year, the festival took place from August 14–18, and is it’s 27th year. The festival aims to gather and celebrate different traditions of the world through music, dance, drama, food, etc. Every year, around 60,000–70,000 people attend.

Falun Dafa practitioners demonstrated the exercises and held workshops at the festival to teach people how to make origami lotus flowers.

Practitioners demonstrate the exercises at the Festival des Traditions du Monde de Sherbrooke held August 14–18.

People Learn Falun Dafa Exercises

Jessica joined the practitioners after seeing the exercise demonstration. She followed their movements and did all five Falun Dafa exercises. She said afterwards, “I feel great. I feel that there’s a lot energy in the body, very good energy. To use two words to describe it: Peace and love.”

Jessica (first from right) does the exercises with practitioners

Jessica thanked practitioner Ms. Lin, who showed her the exercises. Although there was a language barrier, through translation, Jessica asked Ms. Lin, “Do you live in the area? I’d really like to practice the exercises with you.” Ms. Lin explained that she lives in Montreal and that she was jailed and persecuted in China for practicing Falun Dafa. She eventually moved to Canada as a refugee.

Jessica said, “I know that Falun Dafa practitioners have suffered. Is everything all right with you here? I’d like to learn Falun Dafa, and I hope to practice the exercises with you in the future.”

Practitioners’ exercise demonstration attracted festival attendees such as 14-year-old Anthony (first from right) to learn the exercises.

Fourteen-year-old Anthony followed along with practitioners and did the exercises, including the meditation. His father Herve was happy to see his interest in the exercises, and said that Anthony has been learning Taekwondo since he was five. It has been nine years now and he already earned a black belt. Herve thinks that meditating is good for children’s physical and mental health. He said that the Taekwondo instructor encourages the students to meditate.

Anthony said after finishing the exercises, “Even though I also meditate in my Taekwondo classes, I feel very good energy here. I feel physically and mentally better than before I did them. This is my first time trying Falun Dafa, and I feel it’s great.”

A woman next to Anthony told a practitioner after she did the second exercise, the Falun Standing Stance, “Thank you so much. I’m so happy to come here and learn the exercises.” She had tears in her eyes and thanked the practitioner again. Before she left, she hugged the practitioner and said, “Thank you so much.”

A festival employee stopped by the practitioners’ booth and said, “I feel good energy, very strong and the colors are pretty. I’ve never seen such a strong energy field. It’s very beautiful.” She asked, “Then why is Falun Dafa persecuted in China?”

A practitioner explained that the communist party controls people’s thoughts and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) suppression of thoughts and persecution of faith has never stopped. Since the day the CCP usurped power, it began to systematically destroy China’s traditional culture. Falun Dafa’s Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance are exactly the essence of traditional Chinese culture, but the CCP promotes violence and is afraid of Falun Dafa’s principles, and thus launched a genocidal persecution against practitioners.

This employee said, “Thank you for telling me this. Thank you for everything you’ve brought here.” Right after practitioners finished the exercise demonstration, she said, “Thank you for coming. You’ve brought beautiful energy. It’s very beautiful. Thank you.”

Report in Local Newspaper

La Tribune, a daily newspaper published in Sherbrooke, reported on the lotus flower origami workshops. The newspaper interviewed a practitioner who explained, “The lotus flower symbolizes peace. It resembles how we practice Falun Dafa, because the flower starts from the ground and goes through hardships until it blooms as a beautiful flower. We improve our virtue to become better people.”

La Tribune’s reported on practitioners’ origami lotus flower workshop