By Bulgarian practitioners
(Clearwisdom.net) Practitioners gathered in front of the National Palace of Culture in downtown Sofia, Bulgaria, on January 29, 2006. The event marked the start of the Chinese New Year, the year of the Dog. Falun Gong practitioners were the only ones who celebrated the Chinese New Year in Sofia and pleasantly surprised the citizens of the capital by wishing them "Happy Chinese New Year."
Practitioners put up a big poster to greet people, arranged a small exhibition with photos, books and magazines showing what Falun Gong is all about, and how popular it is in many countries around the world. They also exposed how practitioners are tortured, even to death, in China.
Adjacent to the exhibition site one of the practitioners organized a workshop teaching people how to make paper lotus flowers. Many were interested and took the chance to learn how to make lotus flowers. In the meantime practitioners gave everyone who passed by a handmade paper lotus flower, a symbol of the purity and beauty of Falun Gong, along with a flyer about the ancient Chinese cultivation practice and the ruthless persecution by the Communist regime in China. Children were very happy to take a colorful balloon with the words "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" written on it to play with.
Practitioners explained to people the details of how the persecution started, how many people who want to do the Falun Gong exercises are thrown into labor camps, tortured in psychiatric hospitals and jails, and that there are about three thousand officially confirmed deaths due to police violence. When learning about the persecution, many people gave their support by signing the petition appealing for the end of the persecution and expressed their surprise and indignation that such a peaceful meditation practice could be persecuted so cruelly.
Several people expressed their personal interest in Falun Gong and promised to come to the practice site. One of them even exclaimed, "This is just what I have been looking for!"
For the first time the event was covered by many national TV and newspapers. Many journalists interviewed practitioners about the philosophy and the exercises of Falun Gong and listened with interest to the story of the ongoing repression in China. Some of them also signed the petition. 
