Incenses usually come from tree resins, flowers, herbs, as well as some seeds, roots, and barks that odorize with great essence. These aromatic sticks have a long history and were common among many different ancient cultures and religions, usually associated with their gods and the natural environment. More specific, fragrant plant materials were believed to drive away demons and devil spirits while was said both to manifest the presence of the gods and to gratify them.

Incense has played an important role in many of the world’s great religions. The Somali coast and the Arabian Peninsula produced trees for their resin as well as shrubs including frankincense, myrrh, and the famous cedars of Lebanon.

The ancient Egyptians that utilized incense as a basic ingredient for sacrificial rituals, as for the worship of their god Amon-Ra and for the rites that accompanied burials, imported the resins from the upper Africa. The smoke from the incense was thought to lift dead souls toward heaven.

The Babylonians also employed incense during prayers, rituals (with the belief that they could manifest the gods), and also during exorcisms and healing. Of their favourites were cypress, fir, and pine trees. Incense among others, became part of ancient Jewish worship where frankincense and myrrh from Arabia were widely used in the temples in Jerusalem during the times of Christ’s teachings.

Ancient Greeks and Romans too, used incense to drive away demons and to gratify the gods. Specifically, early Greeks who practiced many rites of sacrifice began substituting the burning of incense for live sacrifices, while the use of incense in civic ceremonies became common in Greek life. Among others, Greeks also used for the creation of incense Persian plants that Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C) brought back from his conquests.  As for Roman Empire, it was expanded and together expanded the variety of the imported incense they use, among which Arabian fine myrrh was the one that they carried as incense with them across Europe.

The early Christians, both Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox church, had incorporated incense burning into their practices -by swinging the censer- believing that the smoke was carrying their prayers to heaven and also that they honoured God and the saints. The rite of the censer was and still is used in many religions.

Of course, incense was always utilized more extensively in eastern religions, like Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and others. The burning of incense takes place in religion rites, festivals, processions, and many daily rituals. Instead of the censer, eastern religions use containers made of metal or pottery in which incense is burned directly or placed on hot coals (first used in China as early as 2,000 B.C.)

It is noticeable that Chinese also applied incense to a wide variety of uses as the fumigation of books to destroy bookworms, or the construction of fans with sandal-wood so the motion of the fan to spread the fragrance of the wood.

Actually, there are two categories of incense, western and eastern.

Western incenses that are still used in churches, made from the gum resins in tree barks. The gum -which produced in order to protect the tree from cuts as well as preventing infection-, can be easily harvested by cutting it from the tree with a knife. These pieces of resin, called grains, release their fragrance when they are sprinkled on burning coal.

On the other hand, Eastern incenses are processed from plants like sandalwood, patchouli, agar wood, and vetiver. These harvested and ground using a large mortar and then added water to make a paste and a little potassium nitrate to help the material burn uniformly. The mix is processed in some form to be burning, releasing the essential oils locked in the dried resin.

Stick incenses are made with “punk sticks” and fragrance oils and were imported from China where there are made of bamboo. The upper portion of each stick is coated with paste made of sawdust from a kind of hardwood. The sawdust is highly absorbent and retains fragrance well. Charcoal is also used to make the absorbent punk, and it is favoured in incense sticks made in India. The fragrant oils are made of oil from naturally aromatic plants or from other perfumes or fragrances that are mixed in an oil base.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, natural and herbal Incense ingredients began to be supplanted by chemicals used in the perfume industry, and this trend toward the use of synthetic substitutes in Incense continues to the present day. The cost of manufacturing has also meant that traditional Incense production has been abandoned in favour of mechanized mass production. 

Tag: Incenses