Uncle Ho and the Tree Planting Festival

(Baonghean.vn) -On January 31, 2009 (the 6th day of the Lunar New Year of the Ox), Nghe An province will organize the Spring Tree Planting Festival to kick off the year 2009. The launching and mobilization will take place at Nam Dan High School, the birthplace of President Ho Chi Minh. On this occasion, let us recall the history of the "Tree Planting Festival" initiated by President Ho Chi Minh.

Exactly 50 springs ago, President Ho Chi Minh launched the "Tree Planting Festival," published in the Nhan Dan newspaper on November 28, 1959, under the pseudonym Tran Luc. This was also the first time the three words "Tree Planting Festival" appeared in the mass media.

In preparation for that year's "Tree Planting Festival," six months prior, Uncle Ho initiated the effort with an article titled "Farmers Must Plant Trees to Prepare for Housing," published in the Nhan Dan newspaper on May 30, 1959. To clarify the significance of tree planting, Uncle Ho affirmed: "In material life, the two most important things are food and shelter." He provided specific examples to illustrate this point: "In the past, kings and officials had magnificent palaces and mansions, landlords had high gates and spacious houses. Working farmers, however, only had thatched huts with mud walls, often insufficient to protect them from the sun and rain."

From those comparisons, Uncle Ho thought about preparing saplings for the "Tree Planting Festival." He encouraged everyone: "From now on, our peasant compatriots must start preparing materials for building houses. Each person (in each family, including the elderly, young, men, and women) must plant at least five trees (acacia trees and other trees that can be used for rafters and pillars). And each family must plant a clump of bamboo." Uncle Ho analyzed the social significance of the "Tree Planting Festival": "In ten years, our country's landscape will become more beautiful, the climate more temperate, and timber more abundant. This will make an important contribution to improving the lives of our people."

Reading through President Ho Chi Minh's writings on tree planting, we deeply appreciate his advice and his concern for our country, our people, and each individual, even in the smallest and most specific matters.

From the first "Tree Planting Festival" until his passing (in 1969), President Ho Chi Minh wrote ten articles for the Nhan Dan newspaper on the theme of tree planting. Five of these articles were titled "Tree Planting Festival." Depending on the historical context, President Ho Chi Minh launched "Tree Planting Festivals" that were timely and served as a political task for the entire Party and the entire nation.

In 1959, at a time when the whole country was competing to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnam Labor Party, Uncle Ho wrote: "Alongside that emulation campaign, we propose organizing a 'Tree Planting Day'. This costs little but yields many benefits." He emphasized: "This is also a long-term but gentle competition that everyone, from elderly people to young children, can enthusiastically participate in."

During the 1963 "Tree Planting Festival," amidst the atmosphere of the people of North Vietnam supporting the South in its struggle for independence and national reunification, Uncle Ho wrote: "The Tree Planting Festival not only has economic significance, but also great political significance. While the brutal American-Diem regime was using poison to destroy trees and forests in the South, in the North, our people were competing to plant trees and reforest. This one act alone is enough to make people compare our regime and the enemy's, and clearly recognize the goodness of our regime. We plant trees for ourselves and for our compatriots in the South as well."

In the spring of 1965, the fifth "Tree Planting Festival," the article began with the line: "In the new year, let's enthusiastically organize the Tree Planting Festival." Uncle Ho used a simple yet quite comprehensive verse to summarize the meaning of planting trees and reforestation: "Spring is the Tree Planting Festival, making the country ever more vibrant." He continued: "The Tree Planting Festival began to become widespread in the spring of 1960. Because of its clear benefits, the people enthusiastically responded, and in many places it became a mass movement. From then until now, just five years later, the North of our country has planted more than 375 million trees of various kinds. In addition, there are more than 200 million trees protecting dikes in coastal areas."

After reviewing some localities with relatively good movements, Uncle Ho also praised those that had recently made progress: "There are provinces that were previously underdeveloped, but are now doing well, such as Nghe An and Son Tay." He reminded the localities: "We are preparing to build new rural areas. The first task of building new rural areas is to build decent housing. To achieve this, we must plant many good trees now for timber. This alone shows the need to promote the Tet Tree Planting movement... This year, we will successfully complete the first five-year plan and celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam... Our people should enthusiastically organize a successful Tet Tree Planting movement (of course, every tree planted must be a good one) as a worthy commemorative gift for these two events."

In his opening remarks on the last Tree Planting Festival in 1969, he wrote: "Today, all our people understand that planting trees and reforestation has great benefits for the economy and national defense. Therefore, the Tree Planting Festival, which marks the beginning of tree planting throughout the year, has become a beautiful custom of our people."

Not only did President Ho Chi Minh initiate the "Tree Planting Festival," but he also set an example by actively participating in it. In 1960, President Ho Chi Minh planted a banyan tree at the first "Tree Planting Festival" in Bay Mau Park (now Thong Nhat Park, and later Lenin Park in Hanoi). On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year (February 16, 1969), in Vat Lai commune, Ba Vi district, he planted the last banyan tree. This served as a great source of encouragement for the Vietnamese people to launch a tree-planting movement at the beginning of spring.

From the tradition of planting trees during Tet (Vietnamese New Year), in 1965 the forestry sector was honored to have November 28th chosen annually by the Prime Minister as Vietnam Forestry Day, which is also the traditional day of the forestry sector.

Following President Ho Chi Minh's teaching, "Spring is the time for tree planting," Nghe An province, along with the rest of the country, has consistently maintained the tradition of planting trees in early spring over the years. For the past 50 years, people from all walks of life and localities throughout the province have planted tens of millions of scattered trees. Each year, localities plant 10,000-12,000 trees during the Tet holiday. The protection and development of forest resources has received attention from Party committees, government agencies, mass organizations, and the Fatherland Front at all levels, making a significant contribution to improving people's lives and the ecological environment.

Let me reiterate the last sentence in President Ho Chi Minh's final article on the Tree Planting Festival: "This year, we must compete to plant trees well, ensuring that every tree planted thrives." Achieving this means we are fulfilling Ho Chi Minh's thought on the Tree Planting Festival: "Spring is the time for planting trees, making the country ever more vibrant and prosperous."

Phan Van Toan