Quang Nam incense village prepares for Tet rush

Travellers's Note admin

Quan Huong villagers in Quang Nam Province have grown exceedingly busy as demand for incense sticks soars prior to Lunar New Year.

In front of his house, Du Van Nhan, who has been making incense sticks in the village for three generations, dries raw materials. Nearly a month before the Lunar New Year, or Tet holiday, which falls on February 12 this year, all over the Quan Huong Village in Thang Binh District is infused with the fragrance of incense sticks as villagers are busy for the busiest season of the year. Vietnamese people have a long tradition of visiting temples and lighting incense or burn the sticks at the ancestral altar at home during Tet.

Du Van Nhan, whose family has been making incense sticks in the village for three generations, dries raw materials in front of his home.
Nearly a month before the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, which falls on Feb. 12 this year, Quan Huong Village in central Vietnam’s Thang Binh District is infused with the fragrance of incense sticks.
During the most important holiday of the year, Vietnamese typically burn incense at pagodas or on ancestral altars at home.

Materials used to make incense include saw powder, cinnamon, herbal medicine, and agarwood, dried and finely ground. Plastic powder and water are added to the final mix.

Sticks to make incense are bought from northern provinces for VND26,000 ($1.12) per kilogram.

Manually-operated machines are used to produce incense.

Incense is usually dried in the sun for four consecutive hours.
Quan Huong Village produces incense all year round. But Covid-19 and continuous flooding in 2020 affected demand, said Nguyen Tu Ky, with 30 years’ experience. “Tet is the busiest time of the year in the village.”