(Minghui.org) Some recent activities in Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, aimed at bringing awareness about Falun Gong and the persecution in China to the attention of people in Bulgaria.

The activities took place during the weekend of June 6-7. Practitioners demonstrated the Falun Gong meditative exercises, introduced the practice at various public sites, and screened the documentary Free China: The Courage to Believe, which offers a glimpse into the brutal persecution practitioners in China continue to endure at the hands of the communist regime.

They also asked passersby to sign a petition calling to end the killing of Falun Dafa practitioners in China for their organs.

At two booths located in the downtown area where thousands of people took to the streets to enjoy the warm summer season, hundreds of signatures were collected in a matter of hours, as locals, tourists, and many Chinese learned about the practice and wanted to express their support.

The activities were part of a national gathering of Bulgarian practitioners from around the country who come together every month to study the teachings and share experiences. Each time, they choose a different city.

Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after the capital Sofia, with a population of close to a half million. It is an important economic, transportation, cultural, and educational center, as well as the second-largest city in the historical international region of Thrace, after Istanbul, Turkey, and is the tenth-largest city in the Balkans. Plovdiv has been selected to be a 2019 European Capital of Culture.