0119.jpg)
According to The Star, workers create fragrant sticks for the Lunar New Year holiday in Vietnam's “incense village”, which is dazzling pink and scarlet, but tight measures are still implemented to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Workers are busy working in Quang Phu Cau village, on the outskirts of Hanoi in January. The place is where the custom of producing incense started more than a century ago.
0119.jpg)
The public hope things will start to look up by praying with incense sticks. (Photo / Retrieved from Pixabay)
As the Tet new year celebration approaches – which begins on February 1 this year – sales increase as crowds of people flock to temples to ignite incense during prayer or burn the sticks on the ancestral altar at home.
However, villagers grumble that business is slow while dyeing, drying, and whittling bamboo bark to manufacture the sticks.
0119.jpg)
A variety of colors available for the public to choose. (Photo / Retrieved from Pixabay)
As a result of stringent limitations imposed to combat the virus, Communist Vietnam reported economic growth of only 2.58 percent in 2021, the lowest in three decades.
As practically the entire country was put on lockdown for at least three months, production, supply lines, and enterprises were severely harmed.
Although things have begun to improve, the ramifications persist.
"Normally, trucks transporting our products from the central and border provinces would be present. Trucks are unable to transport products there this year due to pandemic preparedness policies," Luyen explained.
The sticks are made in several locations around Vietnam, with the aroma of each batch carefully tuned to the tastes of the regions where they will be marketed.
