(Clearwisdom.net) From June 26 to 28, 2009, people in Ballwin, Missouri, celebrated the 32^nd anniversary of Ballwin Day. Falun Gong practitioners participated in the parade on the 27^th.

Ballwin, located west of St. Louis, holds its annual Ballwin Day festival from Friday to Sunday. The main attraction is always the parade on Saturday morning. Nearly the entire town comes out to see it.

It was a sunny day with temperature in the upper 90s. When the Falun Dafa entry appeared in front of the crowd, it received warm cheers and applause.

Three practitioners led the procession holding a banner with golden characters reading "Falun Dafa" and "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance." Following the banner was the drum team playing noble and powerful beats. After the drums was the float decorated with lotus flowers. Practitioners stood on the float and demonstrated the five exercises.

The theme of this year's parade was "Books on Parade." Practitioners put a large model of the book Zhuan Falun on top of the float. The book provides spiritual guidance for Falun Gong practitioners, and it is translated into over 30 languages.

Along the route of the parade, practitioners distributed Falun Dafa fliers to the crowd. Many read them on the spot. A resident was pleased to see Falun Gong float this year. He said that he had learned about Falun Dafa last year. They were glad to hear that there were free teaching sessions at a local park. A young man was very happy and surprised to know that all of the exercise instructions and teachings were available for free download online.