Vietnam incense village dazzles ahead of Lunar New Year, though sales down

Vietnam's "incense village" is dazzling pink as workers prepare the fragrant sticks for the Lunar New Year holiday, but strict rules to stop the spread of Covid-19 are dulling its lustre.

January is usually the busiest time of year for workers in Quang Phu Cau village on the outskirts of Hanoi, where the tradition of making incense goes back more than a century.

As Vietnam's Tet new-year holiday approaches -- this year it begins on February 1 -- sales tick up with throngs of people crowding into temples to light incense during worship, or burn the sticks on the ancestral altar at home