New Jersey: Tianguo Marching Band Won the "Best Overall Entry" in the Labor Day Parade

[PureInsight.org] On Monday, September 3^rd,
nearly 100 groups participated in the 50th annual Labor Day Parade at
South Plainfield, New Jersey. This is the largest Labor Day parade with
the longest history in New Jersey. State Governor Jon Corzine was there
and walked the entire parade. The Falun Gong group was the only Asian
group that participated. The Tianguo Marching Band (Divine Marching
Band)'s outstanding and peaceful music had won the "Best Overall Entry
as Determined by Judges."

According to a report on September 9^th, 2007 by The Epoch Times,
in 1894, the US Congress formally announced a new national holiday -
Labor Day - to be the first Monday in every September. The holiday was
designed to show respect to laborers. Although in many US cities today
the traditional Labor Day parades have been changed or removed, the
officials and residents in South Plainfield, NJ felt that keeping the
traditional parade for this holiday was very important. The day of the
parade was a sunny day. Many local people brought chairs and sat down
along the road very early to see this traditional grand parade.



The parade started at 10 am and lasted for two and half hours. The
front of the parade was lead by a large middle school marching band.
Governor Jon Corzine, who just recovered from a car accident several
months ago, was walking in the front part of the parade. He frequently
waved at the audience who were concerned about his situation. Following
him, there were different styles of marching bands and all kinds of of
decorated floats. Among them there were the traditional western
carriages and clowns on top of stilts that drew enormous attention from
the audience.



Falun Gong's unit was composed of a Tianguo Marching band and a Falun
Gong exercise team. The Tianguo Marching Band gave the audience all
along the parade route a pure, positive, and compassionate feeling.
Many people clapped their hands with the music and many received the
Falun Gong introduction materials and began to carefully read them.
Some audience memebers expressed to the reporter that Falun Gong's band
was the best among all groups. The Falun Gong exercise team repeatedly
presented the exercises and their elegance drew much attention from the
audience. When the Falun Gong unit passed the main platform, the MC
introduced the principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance"
of Falun Gong and also specifically emphasized that the Falun Gong unit
brought a very peaceful atmosphere.



After the parade, the judges selected teams for different awards. The
Tianguo Marching Band's outstanding performance has won the "Best
Overall Entry as Determined by Judges."



Translated from:

http://zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/9/5/48207.html