(Minghui.org) Featuring cultural performances, delicious food, and hundreds of merchants and groups, the annual Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival attracted more than 100,000 visitors during the weekend of September 15 and 16.
San Francisco’s Chinatown is one of the largest in North America. The tradition of the Autumn Moon Festival started since 1991, two years after the Loma Prieta Earthquake.
Visitors stop by the Falun Dafa booth during the Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival
Falun Dafa practitioners in the Bay Area have participated in the event for years. They demonstrated the Dafa exercises, introduced the meditation and spiritual discipline to visitors, and talked to people about its persecution by the communist regime in China, including the state-sanctioned killing of practitioners who are imprisoned for their faith.
Over 380 Chinese people agreed to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations in the two days of the festival.
Practitioners talk to visitors and pass out paper lotus flowers.
A Chinese visitor decided to quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations
Tourists from mainland China learn more about Falun Dafa.
Chinese students showed interest in learning Falun Dafa
Festivalgoers read flyers introducing Falun Dafa.
Many Westerners also expressed interest in Falun Dafa. They were excited to learn that the practice is based on traditional Chinese culture and teaches people to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Many of them were shocked to hear of the persecution of Falun Dafa in China.