(Minghui.org) The Plai Festival delights the residents and tourists of Timisoara every year in early autumn. The Plai Festival is an internationally known music and art festival, held annually during the second weekend of September. This year’s festival was held from September 8-10, 2023.
Timisoara is one of Romania’s largest cities and the city where the revolution against the communist regime began in 1989. Nowadays, it has become an important economic, cultural, and educational center. Various cultural and performing arts activities are held throughout the year, and the city is known as “Little Vienna.”
Falun Dafa practitioners participated in two activities: the demonstration of Falun Dafa exercises, and a lotus flower workshop for children. Both activities took place at the Water Museum on September 9 and 10. Practitioners also informed the festival attendees about the 24-year-long persecution of Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa) in China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The practitioners performed the five calming exercises, which included meditation. They also distributed brochures with information about the benefits experienced by people who cultivate in Dafa.
Interested people were given the contact details of local practitioners and the location of the Timisoara practice site, where they could learn the Falun Dafa exercises for free. On both days, attendees expressed interest in learning the exercises. The practitioners’ presence at the festival was also covered by the local media.
Learning Falun Dafa exercises at the Plai Festival in Timișoara.
Children learn the exercises.
Visitors and Organizers Are Amazed By Falun Dafa
Many of the attendees expressed their gratitude to the practitioners for making them aware of such an important issue and praised the quality of the practitioners’ informational materials. Others were happy to learn of a practice that could help people find inner peace.
The organizers were also enthusiastic about supporting the practitioners in their efforts. At the end of the event, the organizers thanked the practitioners for participating and for sharing the activities. They said that they hope to continue to have practitioners participate in future events.
Parents and Children Learn about Falun Dafa
Children attending the festival had the opportunity to stop by the practitioners’ booth with their families to learn how to fold origami lotus flowers. While they did so, the practitioners also explained to them the significance of the lotus flower. The visitors said that it is a symbol of purity and kindness – for spiritual cultivators in China, such as Falun Dafa practitioners. They told the story of how these flowers were now made as a symbol of strength for the children and their families facing persecution in China for believing in Truthfulness-Compassion- Forbearance—the principles of Falun Dafa.
At the end of the workshop, each child was also given a copy of a children’s book, The Story of the Lotus Flower, written by a Falun Dafa practitioner that reminds them to live their lives according to these values. Practitioners also conducted book reading sessions so that the children could hear the story in the book.
The children and adults who participated in the workshop enjoyed the deeper meaning behind the beautiful flowers. One little girl, 11-year-old Mădălina, said that she was very happy to “finally have an inspirational book!”
One teacher at a children’s day center in the village of Chișoda even asked the practitioners if they could come to her day center and help her students learn about it. This way they could also learn about the values of Falun Dafa and the story of what happens to children in China.
Introducing Falun Dafa at the Plai Festival in Timisoara on September 9, 2023
Media Coverage of Falun Gong
During the event, Falun Dafa practitioners were interviewed by several Television (TV) and news websites. They explained what Falun Dafa is and how one cultivates in the Falun Dafa practice. They also talked about the benefits of the practice for health and mental balance.
A media outlet that reported on the practitioners at the event was Adevărul, one of the oldest and most established newspapers in Romania. The Adevărul article featured an interview with Bogdan Florescu, a practitioner of 15 years, at the event in Timisoara. Before he started cultivating Falun Dafa, Florescu found himself just like many other young men, chasing after fame and money without any idea of what he was doing it for. But after taking up Falun Dafa, his worldview changed.
Adevărul reports Falun Dafa at the Plai Festival. (Screenshot)
“[Through Falun Dafa,] I got rid of a lot of problems I was worried about. I found answers to many questions about life, about the universe, and about the meaning of my being in this world,” Florescu told the outlet. “I understand that this universe is much more complex, and there’s something up there that keeps them all in order.”
The article also covered how Falun Dafa practitioners just like Florescu have been persecuted by the CCP for over two decades. Florescu shared how the CCP had long begun the harassment of practitioners before the official launch of the persecution on July 20, 1999.
“Although it was a beneficial practice for everyone, the Chinese government has decided that it must be eradicated within three months. They started to hunt down [practitioners], arrest them, and detain them in prisons or forced labor camps. At the moment this persecution is happening, people are subject to torture, and their organs are harvested,” said Florescu in the article.
Florescu said that the CCP conducts forced organ harvesting operations and sells organs from living prisoners for economic profit. The majority of the prisoners used for organ harvesting are Falun Gong practitioners.
The article also highlights the fact that according to available records, thousands of practitioners have been persecuted to death by the police, while millions have been imprisoned throughout the CCP’s bloody campaign.
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