(Minghui.org) The 68^th Nagoya Festival was held on Saturday and Sunday, October 15-16, 2022. Practitioners participated in the popular event and had a booth in Sakae, the busiest area of Nagoya City. They demonstrated the exercises, and told people about Falun Dafa and how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecutes it. They also collected signatures on a petition to end the persecution.

According to the organizer of the Nagoya City celebration, approximately 1.25 million people attended the festivities.

Practitioners demonstrate the exercises during the 68^th Nagoya Festival in Sakae on October 16.

Introducing Falun Dafa during the Nagoya Festival

People sign a petition to condemn the persecution.

When practitioners demonstrated the exercises many passersby stopped to watch. Some took photos, while others asked about Falun Dafa and talked with practitioners, or took fliers.

A man in his 70s joined the practitioners as they did the second exercise.

The festival was not held for three years due to the COVID pandemic, so this year both sides of the route were packed with spectators. In order for more people to learn about Falun Dafa and the CCP’s persecution, practitioners distributed fliers along the parade route to people who were waiting to watch the parade. Many people accepted the fliers.

After reading the flier, some people wished to sign the petition opposing the persecution. During the event some people went to the signature collection table to sign the petition after seeing the banners.

Mr. Ito, who is in his 50s, signed the petition and encouraged practitioners to continue their efforts.

Two older people said they had learned about the persecution from a practitioner the previous week, and they went to the practitioners’ stand to ask for more information about the CCP’s organ harvesting. Some people went to ask for little paper lotus flowers. When they got the flowers, they expressed their gratitude and left happily.

A middle-aged man on a bicycle passed by a practitioner who was distributing fliers. He stopped to get one and chose a small lotus flower in a color he liked. The practitioner asked if he knew about the persecution of Falun Dafa. He said he did, and he also shared some information he read on the Internet. He said he really couldn’t understand why the CCP was persecuting practitioners.

Distributing fliers to the public

Many tourists attended the two-day festival. A young western man in his twenties said that he was studying at Nagoya University. A practitioner handed him a flier and asked if he had heard about Falun Dafa. He replied that he had not. He said he would browse the Internet for more information.

Practitioners distributed fliers to Chinese tourists and talked to them about quitting the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Some took the fliers and said they would read them.

Background: What Is Falun Dafa and Why Is the CCP Persecuting It?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in over 100 countries and regions worldwide. Millions of people who have embraced the teachings, which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and have learned the five exercises, have experienced improved health and well-being.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and on July 20, 1999, he issued an order to eradicate the practice.

Under Jiang’s personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organization with the power to override the police and judicial systems and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Dafa.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners as a result of the persecution over the past 23 years. The actual number is believed to be much higher. Countless practitioners have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply China’s organ transplant industry.