(VOVworld) – Tet holiday is the most sacred festival of the year for Vietnamese people. As Tet approaches, overseas Vietnamese grow eager to return to their native land for the New Year celebration.

OVs look happy to be presented with conical hats filled with lotus flowers at the gathering held by Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee.

Every year the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs of the Foreign Ministry organizes a homeland spring program to welcome Vietnamese people living abroad home for Tet.

The program was held in Ho Chi Minh City for the first time this year with thousands of people attending. Doctor Pham Thien Hung, President of the Vietnam Oriental Medicine Association in Russia, says attending the Homeland Spring program made him better understand the word ‘origin’.

Hung states: “many overseas Vietnamese who have gone abroad to work for a long time now want to come back to Vietnam to turn the homeland into a more prosperous country. I think OVs hope that the program will be held annually as a way to help them remember Vietnam’s history.”

Mac Van Tan from the northern coastal city of Hai Phong moved to Germany in the early 1980s. He says he feels warmer celebrating Tet in the homeland after 34 years living abroad.

Tan even wrote a couple of verses to express his feelings and those of Vietnamese who haven’t had an opportunity to return to their native country. The poem is literally translated as follows: “the foreign land is not our homeland because there are no peach flowers during Tet nor the sound of cicadas on summer days. Homeland is the place where people have deep feelings.”

OVs at the 2015 Homeland Spring Program in Ho Chi Minh City.

Tu Linh, former director of the Lam Ty Ni Orphanage in Sai Gon, now Ho Chi Minh City, says that though she has been living in the US for years, she’s always tormented by a deep nostalgia.

In the US, it’s not difficult to find ingredients for Tet dishes, but she cannot find the same atmosphere of Tet as in Vietnam. For her, the homeland spring program is an opportunity to enjoy a New Year celebration with relatives. She confides: “my children are worried that I’m not strong enough to participate in this program. But this is my homeland so I must come back. I’m so moved to be in Vietnam now.”

Nothing is happier than welcoming Tet in the homeland and witnessing its changes. Many OVs have expressed their delight at Vietnam’s economic growth and 2015 promises new development opportunities and advantages which will encourage them to make a larger investment.

Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh presents the PM certificates of merit for OVs who have made great contributions to the national development.

Filipino-Vietnamese Jonathan Hanh Nguyen, Chairman and CEO of Imex Pan-Pacific Group, says: “I think I still have opportunities to make money. There are lots of needy people and I try to go to as many remote areas as possible to help them. So far, I’ve traveled to 60 provinces and cities as part of a program called ‘For children not to drop out of school’. I realize it’s important and it’s my responsibility to help the children by expanding the program.”

The happiness of those living abroad is to enjoy their Tet holiday in the homeland. Their sentiment motivates them to support Vietnam’s national development. With tens of millions of Vietnamese people at home, OVs share a faith that Vietnam will grow more prosperous and powerful.