NEW YORK—With singing, dancing, live instruments, and meditative exercise demonstrations, World Falun Dafa Day was publicly celebrated in New York City's Union Square on Sunday.
The day, officially marking the birthday of the spiritual practice's founder Master Li Hongzhi, has been used by Falun Dafa practitioners as a way to introduce their practice to the public and show that it is a peaceful discipline despite propaganda from Mainland China—the only country where it is banned.
Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, was founded in China in 1992 and rose dramatically in popularity to 70 million practitioners through the 90s. In 1999, it was banned by the Chinese communist regime, who saw it as an ideological threat.
"While we celebrate this holiday we are deeply concerned and worried that tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners in Mainland China who are courageously defying the dark force and evil persecution and we still have a historic duty to help spread the word," said Erping Zhang, Falun Dafa spokesman, who gave the opening remarks at the event.
Celebrations for World Falun Dafa are being held publicly throughout the United States and the world, including as far away as Brazil, France, Russia, and Taiwan.
Although the practice was founded in 1992, public celebrations of World Falun Dafa Day, like those seen across the United States and the world today, began in 2000 after the persecution began, as a way to counter anti-Falun Gong propaganda being spread by China's state-run media, according to New York Falun Dafa coordinator Scott Chinn.
"We started doing it as a way to help bring more awareness about Falun Gong and the practice itself… That's how the first one came about in 2000, before that, there was no such thing," said Chinn.
"It's also fun for practitioners," noted Chinn, who himself lead an acrobatic performance of the Chinese dragon dance.
The celebrations in New York City and elsewhere incorporate elements of traditional Chinese dancing, singing, and music since the practice is rooted in Chinese culture and spirituality.
After watching a dance performance by Falun Dafa practitioners, college student Abi Fisher said, "It's just amazing to watch their movements and their smoothness. We were just sort of strolling through Union Square today and we saw it—so it's just been really cool to find out about it."
"It was beautiful," said Gene Thompson, an artist living in Manhattan's SoHo. "The very fact that they are able to do this here shows the freedoms that we have in this country have and the tolerance we have for different religions, ethnicities and people, especially in New York City. We're very tolerant it's too bad that there isn't this kind of tolerance in some other countries."
"Excellent, absolutely excellent… the music is very relaxing, very inspiring," said Frank Albanese, an actor from Staten Island after listening to a performance of the erhu—a two-stringed Chinese folk instrument. Albanese said he has been doing the Falun Dafa exercises every morning for the past eight years.
Falun Dafa practitioner Ellen Zhang, who does production management at a company in Manhattan's fashion district, came to watch the show. Although, she was born and raised in China, Zhang learned Falun Dafa in the United States nine years ago.
"A friend of mine introduced it to me… after I did the exercises my body felt very light and the whole day I was full of energy," said Zhang
However, Zhang noted that she has not been able to return to China to visit her family for the last nine years because she could face imprisonment and torture like so many thousands of other Falun Dafa practitioners.
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