Chinese Incense Culture (香学) · Incense and Seasonal Festivals & Folk Customs
Incense Burning on New Year's Day
At the start of the new year, a stick of pure incense prays for blessings and good fortune, with elegant desk offerings accompanying the incense—the incense of New Year's Day is the etiquette of opening the door.
New Year's Day means the morning of the year (New Year's Day, Spring Festival); on this day the ancients burned incense to report to Heaven and pray for a bountiful year and peace for the people.
The Incense of New Year's Day
- Burning Incense to Pray for Blessings: Burn incense upon rising in the morning to honor Heaven, worship ancestors, and pray for the harvest.
- Elegant Offerings: Narcissus, plum blossoms, fingered citron, and incense burners are displayed on the desk, called "New Year's Day elegant offerings," with incense accompanying flowers and stones.
- Offerings to Buddhas and Ancestors: Ever-burning incense before shrines and ancestral tablets.
Incense and the New Year
Burning incense at New Year's carries onIncense for sacrificial ritesthe rites, and is also linked toscholar's lifethe refined elegance of pure offerings, being the most "orthodox" aspect of incense customs.