Falun Gong Adherents Celebrate 19th Birthday in Trafalgar Square

Gentle exercises and calm Chinese music introduce a practice with its roots in the ancient world but its feet firmly planted in the present.

This is World Falun Dafa Day, a celebration not only of the well-known qigong practice, but of the resilience of its adherents in China.

Around 100 people gathered at Trafalgar Square's north terrace in London on Saturday, May 14th, to celebrate the day.

World Falun Dafa Day, held on May 13th each year, is a celebration for members of the spiritual practice Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa). It is the anniversary of the day the founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi, began publicly teaching the practice in China. It is also Li Hongzhi's birthday.

The 100 attendees demonstrated Falun Gong's meditative exercises, sang songs, gave speeches, and distributed flyers to passers-by. A Chinese calligraphy artist wrote inscriptions for anyone who asked, while others gave out origami lotus flowers, a symbol of purity and beauty in Chinese culture.

Falun Gong Founder Li Hongzhi

Li Hongzhi first taught Falun Gong in a schoolhouse in Changchun in northeastern China in 1992. At the time, Falun Gong was known as one among many qigong practices that were offered to the public in China.
Falun Gong involves practising five meditative exercises and living according to teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

The popularity of Falun Gong grew rapidly as many people reported improved health through practising the exercises. The spiritual side of Falun Gong also appealed to a large portion of the Chinese public in an increasingly materialistic Chinese society. In 1996, the main book of Falun Gong, Zhuan Falun, became a best-seller in China.
In February 1999, US News and World Report, citing state officials, reported that between 70 and 100 million people in China were practising Falun Gong. Falun Gong sources say the number of practitioners was in fact over 100 million at that time.

Yudong Gao, who came to the UK from China, attended the event. She told The Epoch Times: "Before 1999, Falun Gong was very popular and welcomed by Chinese people. I learned Falun Gong from my mum. She knew about it from a friend."

She praised Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi: "He is a great man, from my point of view. He introduced Falun Gong to the public and brought benefits to many people."

Londoner Zek Halu also attended. "I had lots of injuries from martial arts and they started vanishing a few weeks after I started doing the exercises," he said. "It was so fast that I nearly missed it. On the health front, lots of things got sorted out in my body.

"I feel great about Master Li [Falun Gong followers often refer to Li Hongzhi as "Master Li", in keeping with Chinese tradition]. The main feeling is gratitude because he has given me something that entirely changed my life. I don't just mean that my health just got a little bit better, the whole direction of my life, everything I do, every aspect of my life has changed and for someone to do that, how do you pay them back? There is no way I can pay back what I have been given."

In addition to the celebrations, the event also touched upon the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China. Practitioners passed out a petition, asking the public to urge David Cameron to condemn the persecution of Falun Gong in China and to demand the immediate release of all family members of UK residents imprisoned inside China for practising Falun Gong.

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