Spring is the season for tree planting.

In these early days of the Year of the Goat, we recall Uncle Ho's call and reminder to the people of the whole country: Spring is the season for planting trees/ Making the country more and more spring-like.

President Ho Chi Minh was the one who initiated, organized and built the Tet Tree Planting Festival into a widespread, vibrant and sustainable mass movement.

In November 1959, during the emulation campaign to celebrate the 30th anniversary of our Party, President Ho Chi Minh called on the people of the whole country: "In that emulation campaign, we propose to organize a "Tet tree planting day". This will cost little but bring many benefits". Accordingly, he proposed that 11 million people aged 8 and over in the North can be responsible for planting one or two trees, and affirmed that if they could do so, in the five years from 1960 to 1965, "we will have 90 million trees, including fruit trees, flowering trees, and house pillars". Thus, planting trees brings many great economic benefits, contributing to improving the lives of our people.

In addition to economic benefits, Uncle Ho affirmed that the Tet tree planting movement also contributed significantly to the cause of strengthening national defense. He pointed out that if the tree planting movement developed strongly, our country would have more lush forests, and forests were the solid fortress of the national defense. In fact, during the years of resistance against the US, the rows of green trees along national highways, provincial roads, canal banks, ditch banks, etc. were giant camouflage nets, helping our air defense troops to maneuver and destroy US aircraft.

In particular, Uncle Ho soon saw clearly the close relationship between afforestation and environmental and climate protection. Therefore, he encouraged people across the country to make efforts to plant trees to: “Block the wind for intensive rice cultivation, protect dikes, surround hills, prevent erosion, prevent sand blowing…” and affirmed: “The forests planted along the coast, along traffic routes, in villages, have had great effects”.

In order for the movement to be increasingly effective, President Ho Chi Minh pointed out that it is necessary to fully prepare for the Tet tree planting. For example, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Departments of Agriculture and Forestry and organizations need to cultivate enough tree seedlings; the local administrative committees must have plans on what trees to plant and where to plant them, etc. At the same time, he affirmed: "All people should participate in tree planting, but the organized force of the elderly is important and the children are the effective contributors."

Besides, he always paid attention to encouraging and praising typical localities and individuals in the tree planting movement; at the same time, he criticized and reminded localities and units that performed poorly. He reminded: “There are still some provinces that are still poor, such as Nam Dinh, Hanoi, Hai Phong. And there are about 20,000 cooperatives that do not really take the Tree Planting Festival seriously… Poor places need to strive to improve.”

Not only reminding the people, Uncle Ho personally planted many trees at the Presidential Palace, in the localities and countries he visited.

Before passing away, in his will, Uncle Ho did not forget to remind our people: "We should have a plan to plant trees on and around the hills... Over time, many trees will form a forest, which will be good for the landscape and beneficial for agriculture."

More than 50 years have passed since Uncle Ho launched the Tet tree planting movement, our country has had thousands of millions of trees spreading shade, tens of thousands of hectares of forest covering the wild hills. Up to now, the movement "Tet tree planting to forever remember Uncle Ho" has always received enthusiastic response from localities and people across the country every time Tet comes and Spring comes.

Although Uncle Ho has been gone for more than 40 years, the Tet tree planting movement initiated by him remains a unique spring feature, a fine traditional custom of the Vietnamese people. Tet tree planting following Ho Chi Minh's ideology is a great driving force, contributing to encouraging the entire Party, the entire people, and the entire army to enthusiastically and passionately strive to plant trees and forests, contributing to making our country more and more beautiful.

According to VNA