Incense for Vietnamese Lunar New Year - 17th January 2020

Late January this year heralds the lunar new year.

While ubiquitously known as Chinese New Year, in Vietnam it's named Tet Nguyen Dan and commonly abbreviated to Tet.

Regarded as marking winter's demise and spring commencing, Tet Nguyen Dan is undoubtedly the most celebrated and significant Vietnamese national holiday.

Feverishly producing incense sticks, for this family business bordering Hanoi, Tet Nguyen Dan represents their peak business period, as the significance of incense and its role in Vietnamese culture and ceremony is hard to overstate.

Burning an incense stick is believed to transmit your prayers across the astral plane to the deities and the ancestors' spirits.

Custom dictates incense only be burnt in odd numbers: 3, 5, 7 or 9 sticks with the quantity chosen significant as each bears a special symbolism.

The future of this dedicated family of incense makers would appear secure for generations to come.