The Case for Burning Incense on Memorial Day

For many of us, Memorial Day simply means an extra day off from work, for which we are thankful. We often spend it relaxing with friends and family. But what we now consider a holiday has its roots in the soil surrounding our nation's war dead. Following the Civil War, many communities, northern and southern, decided to set aside a day to honor those who had died during the war. Early on the day was called Decoration Day, a day to visit and decorate the graves of dead soldiers.

The first-ever memorial day is said to have been celebrated by freed slaves in Charleston, S.C., but Waterloo, N.Y. gets credit as the official birthplace of Memorial Day. The town had a general, General Logan, who campaigned to make it a national holiday (which didn't actually happen until the 1970s). He liked to remind folks of the ancient Greek tradition of honoring fallen heroes with branches of laurel and flowers.

Memorial Day is now celebrated on the last Monday of May, basically so we get a three-day weekend out of it. Some veterans would prefer that it still be celebrated on May 30th as it was for many years, so that we downplay the holiday aspect and treat it more respectfully, less like a party day. They may have a point. Look at how many people die on our highways and waterways each year in Memorial Day weekend drunk-driving accidents. Perhaps if we treated it more soberly, we would have fewer deaths to mourn.

Me being a scent lover and this being a (mostly) scent-related blog, my thoughts lead me from mourning the dead on Memorial Day directly to incense. Incense is burned in many cultures as a way to honor the dead and offer prayers for their souls. Yet, unless your family (genetic or spiritual) uses it in this fashion, you may only connect incense with hippies. Even so, your incense-awareness quotient will no doubt be going up in the years to come.

Mexican Day of the Dead remembrances, with their candy skulls, candles, photographs, flowers, food, drink and incense on colorful altars (ofrendas), have already begun to seep into American popular culture. They're probably the most public displays remembering the dead (other than military salutes) that you'll see in this country. Los Dias de los Muertos (connected to the Catholic holy days All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day) blend indigenous cultural beliefs with Catholic beliefs, but have roots in even earlier traditions of the Celts and Druids. The two-day celebration falls on November 1st and 2nd.

I personally think the dead could use a little remembrance, and the gods a bit of propitiation, earlier in the year, so I hereby propose we incorporate incense into our Memorial Day celebrations. Doesn't have to be anything fancy; just light a stick of incense and say a prayer for the dearly departed. It can be something as simple as "Lord have mercy on the souls of the departed." Let the smoke carry your prayers where they need to go, as it's done for millennia.

In addition to smelling good and carrying prayers heavenward, incense can be used to energetically cleanse your space, to ward off evil, to attract the souls of the dead, and as an offering. The origin of the word "perfume" lies in incense. Perfume means "through smoke." It's easy to imagine our ancestors making their fragrant, smoky offerings to propitiate and thank the gods they knew.

Some Incense Favorites of Mine

There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of different types and aromas of incense. While I enjoy burning incense resin on charcoal, the way it's done in Orthodox and Catholic churches (minus the wildly swinging censers), it is messy and time-consuming, and requires careful tending (the charcoal likes to shoot off sparks).

Of course you can use this to your advantage as a meditative device when you have the time to take it slowly. The resin pictured here is made by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Massachusetts. It is highly fragrant and the scent lingers for days.

If time is short, and you don't want to fuss with charcoal, stick incense is better. You can burn a stick for a few minutes then stub out the ember and go. Incense cones aren't as easy to stub out, and usually don't smell as good, so I prefer the sticks.

Some of the most fragrant incense sticks I've found are made by Fred Soll's Incense & Etc. out of New Mexico. They call them resin on a stick, and they really are resinous and gooey. Their frankincense incense is one of the best I've ever smelled. You can find the line at Whole Foods and online.

I also love the sweet smell of nag champa incense, and the one by Satya Sai Baba is my favorite. I keep the boxes in strategic locations around the house because they're so wonderfully fragrant they act as sachets. Whole Foods also carries this incense, as do lots of little shops and online stores.

While I was living in San Antonio, I came across some incense named after the Holy Archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, et al), made by a New Mexico company called Sage Spirit. I still have some of it, and thirteen years later it still smells strong and sweet. That's some incense!

The Bhutanese incense in the second picture actually started this whole train of thought. It is a blend of about a hundred precious aromatic substances, including safflower, musk, saffron, nagi, and sandalwood. It says it is an offering to propitiate the protective deities. I have to say, it smells more "serious" than most incense, as if it's medicinal as well as an offering, and leaves a tobacco-like trail.

If you don't like anything churchy, sweet or medicinal, I would recommend the little sawdust logs by Incienso de Santa Fe which come in piñon, juniper, cedar, alder, mesquite, fir balsam and hickory. They smell just like a wood fire burning in autumn. If you don't have a fireplace or live where you can smell woodsmoke on the wind, these little incense logs will help make up for it.

Let Your Prayers Arise as Incense

I hope you'll join me on Monday, Memorial Day, by lighting your favorite incense and offering up a prayer for the souls of our war dead and all the others who've gone ahead into the greatest unknown. I know we'd like it if someone thought to do the same for us.

If you're worried that it's a little morbid, and I know some of you are, remember what the Orthodox Christians say - that the best way to ensure we live life fully is by remembering death (don't be paranoid, just aware).

If you don't read this until after Memorial Day, no worry, incense and prayer offerings are welcome at any time. We'll break out the copal, the traditional incense of Day of the Dead celebrations, when autumn rolls around, and in the meantime we'll be taking a look at some favorite incense perfumes.

For now, have a safe and wonderful Memorial Day!

You can find the monastery resin incense at the monastery website, here.

You can find the Archangels incense at the company's online store, here.

You can find the Bhutanese incense at this online store.

You can find the little wood logs at the company's online store, here.

Comments

[perfumeshrine]

Very informative, thank you!!
And incense is dear to my heart, so all this reporting is not wasted.

I agree with you that stubs are not as practical as sticks, but still, I mostly use the charcoals and resin lumps method (minus the censer swings, of course!): I'm traditional like that, I guess, LOL!

[scent signals]

hi, helg - there's nothing quite like the smell of the resin and charcoal. if i had to pick one, for the aroma and ritualistic aspect of it, i'd pick the resin. at a different point in my life i burned it quite often, and found it very soothing. but now i seem to be so busy that the stick incense is what i turn to most. thanks for stopping by!