Giáng Kiết Tường translates to English

Incense burning during the Buddhist holidays as well as days to remember one’s ancestors and especially during Tet – our Lunar New Year, is a must-do and a beautiful gesture that reflects our thousand-year-old tradition. A bundle of incense sticks is likely compared to a spiritual bridge allowing humankind to reach over to those of the supernatural world elsewhere in the heaven and earth. You may say that incense has crossed the threshold into practically all people’s homes; it embraces a particular importance in the lives of the Vietnamese people, as well as the gentle people of many other nations in the south east Asia continent.

As traditions have it, everyone is busy shopping, gathering necessary items for Tet during those hectic days of the old years. It is unlikely that they would forget to include freshly-made incense for their altar to the Buddhas, and a worshiping place for generations of their ancestors.

Let’s take a moment to visualize and relive the momentous hours where the old year receded over, given way to a fresh start of the new year - it is hard to explain the exact sacred feeling of those hours, where the whole family gather around, the eldest burns some incense, respectfully and reverently offer the burning fragrance and glimmering glow of incense to the deceased father, mother, grandparents, long-gone ancestors, and all the loved ones who have gone from our lives. The billowy grayish white smoke and the soothing scented aroma of incense tend to bring people closer together, create a heartened comfort and peaceful relaxing family.

Possibly all or most of us – of the Vietnamese ethnicity - have a propensity to believe that there is another world on “the other side”, somewhere in that unknowingly infinite space out there, where our loved ones, in spirit or in soul-like forms, are turning toward us for comfort, for moment of family life, for reaching out to us as well. When the incense is burned, through its aromatic scent and whiff of smoke, we can literally have conversation with them, invite them, interact with them, creating warmth comfort for both real and supernatural worlds, bringing them together.

No one is sure as to when or how the incense-burning tradition has started, who invented it… We only know through written and documented history, that the Emperor Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308), a beloved king who strongly supported Buddhism, and a well-known Buddhist Zen master monk, inherited the tradition and encouraged the use of incense in all the Buddhist sacraments and incantation services.

Some of us Vietnamese people have the habits of burning an incense at the altars for Buddha and the ancestors first, upon returning home, before we begin other tasks of greeting the family or doing something else less relevant. For those who are taking trips going away by car, boat, or plane, they also often burn an incense stick at the altars asking for security, protection, and well-being of their journey.

In the remote villages of the South Vietnam, often people believe that even trees, ant hills, cornerstone, etc… also have spirits living nearby, so one may see make-shift altars and incense offerings at these most unlikely places.

The philosophical outlook on life for the country folks in the Asian countries may be unpretentiously simple, but it carries rich and diversified meanings and implications. Nowadays, incense burning is not only traditionally utilized in Buddhist families. Others of various religion and diverse belief also use incense as the universally distinctive customs in their own rituals.  In the remote countryside, where many non-religion make-shift altars, pagodas, shrines, and communal temples are built everywhere, incense burning is always plentiful and generous.

Back to our own New Year customs, traditions have it that during the three days of Tet, we can witness the most familiar, yet reverently delightful scenes of the young’s and the olds, the men and the women, the elderly and the teenagers… everyone, with the incense sticks burning and raised high at their forehead, seems to sincerely, earnestly, and genuinely whisper their prayers asking to have a prosperous, peaceful, and healthy year to come for themselves and their loved ones… This beautiful tradition of the three days of Tet has gone on for centuries and for generations to generations, no one can remember its origins, but it sure conveys a sense of security, assurance, and peace of mind to all of us, there at the altars during Tet.

For us Vietnamese people, whether living in the big cities or remote villages, (and whether living in beloved Vietnam or abroad)⁽¹⁾, every new year, every springtime, it is customary to gather up a small bundle of fragrant incense sticks, light them up and offer them with our utmost sincerity to remember our own parents and ancestors, and to pray for an uneventful year filled with joy, peace, and love for everyone, and to create the warm ambiance and the festive mood for our own family during the New Year.

(1)   note added from the translator who resides in America.

Giang Kiet Tuong (The Buddhist Translation Group)

SOURCE: http://www.phapluanonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121:khoi-nhang-ngay-tt&catid=36:xuan&Itemid=56