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Five elements · Twelve animals · Sixty-year cycle

Find the incense that fits your BaZi

Enter your birth date, choose what the incense is for, and get incense matched to your supporting elements and to prayer or ritual. Plus a lunar calendar, zodiac and year elements.

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This BaZi year

丙午

2026: Yang Fire Horse

Today

3 November 2026

 

Day pillar

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Next solar term

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Find the incense that fits your BaZi

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  1. Enter your birth details
  2. Choose the purpose
  3. See your matching incense

Incense for prayer and ritual

Every community has its own rules, so treat this as a starting point and follow your family, teacher or house of worship.

A Balinese Hindu offering in front of a Ganesha statue in Ubud

Daily prayer at home

For a home altar or a daily offering, where a small, repeatable burn fits the routine.

The number of sticks and the words differ by community. Follow your family or your teacher.

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Chinese Indonesian families burning Indonesian incense before Lunar New Year

Ancestors and grave visits

For remembering the dead at an altar or a grave, such as Cheng Beng, nyekar and Día de Muertos.

Not every family burns incense on these visits. In one study of grave visits in Cirebon, it wasn't required of ordinary pilgrims.

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Burning incense coils hanging from a temple ceiling

Temple and ceremony

For a temple, a church or a larger rite, where the material is often set by the tradition itself.

Ask first. Many temples and churches provide their own incense or have rules about what you may bring.

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Incense sticks burning in the ash bowl at Hozenji

Meditation and quiet

Our editors' suggestion: low-smoke sticks that won't dominate a small room. We found mostly sellers' claims here, not temple rules.

Some people burn incense before sitting rather than during it, so the smoke doesn't distract them.

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A large metal burner smoking near a stupa

Purifying a space, by tradition

Smoke offerings that communities burn to purify a place. This is a belief about meaning, not a claim about the air.

Smoke adds fine particles to indoor air, so open a window. Sage, sweetgrass and palo santo are sensitive materials, so ask about their source.

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Each tradition decides what is proper. Dupa Incense only records what its sources say.

Lunar calendar

2026-11

Each day shows its lunar date, stem-branch pair and element. Tap a day for details. An asterisk marks a leap month.

The twelve zodiac animals

The animal changes with the year. Popular custom switches at Lunar New Year, while BaZi switches at Lichun, around 4 February.

子

Rat

Zi · Water

1996 · 2008 · 2020 · 2032

丑

Ox

Chou · Earth

1997 · 2009 · 2021 · 2033

寅

Tiger

Yin · Wood

1998 · 2010 · 2022 · 2034

卯

Rabbit

Mao · Wood

1999 · 2011 · 2023 · 2035

辰

Dragon

Chen · Earth

2000 · 2012 · 2024 · 2036

巳

Snake

Si · Fire

2001 · 2013 · 2025 · 2037

午

Horse

Wu · Fire

2002 · 2014 · 2026 · 2038

未

Goat

Wei · Earth

1991 · 2003 · 2015 · 2027

申

Monkey

Shen · Metal

1992 · 2004 · 2016 · 2028

酉

Rooster

You · Metal

1993 · 2005 · 2017 · 2029

戌

Dog

Xu · Earth

1994 · 2006 · 2018 · 2030

亥

Pig

Hai · Water

1995 · 2007 · 2019 · 2031

A row of Chinese zodiac statues at Wong Tai Sin Temple, Hong Kong
Chinese zodiac statues at Wong Tai Sin Temple, Hong Kong. Photo: LoiuaJodsoen Normaw, CC BY-SA 4.0

Year elements, 2024 to 2036

Each year pairs a stem and a branch. The same-element scent echoes the year. The balancing scent uses the element the year's stem feeds, one common way to soften an excess.

YearPillarElement and animalLunar New YearLichunSame elementBalancing
2024甲辰 Jia ChenYang Wood Dragon10 February 20244 February 2024WoodFire
2025乙巳 Yi SiYin Wood Snake29 January 20253 February 2025WoodFire
2026丙午 Bing WuYang Fire Horse17 February 20264 February 2026FireEarth
2027丁未 Ding WeiYin Fire Goat6 February 20274 February 2027FireEarth
2028戊申 Wu ShenYang Earth Monkey26 January 20284 February 2028EarthMetal
2029己酉 Ji YouYin Earth Rooster13 February 20293 February 2029EarthMetal
2030庚戌 Geng XuYang Metal Dog3 February 20304 February 2030MetalWater
2031辛亥 Xin HaiYin Metal Pig23 January 20314 February 2031MetalWater
2032壬子 Ren ZiYang Water Rat11 February 20324 February 2032WaterWood
2033癸丑 Gui ChouYin Water Ox31 January 20333 February 2033WaterWood
2034甲寅 Jia YinYang Wood Tiger19 February 20344 February 2034WoodFire
2035乙卯 Yi MaoYin Wood Rabbit8 February 20354 February 2035WoodFire
2036丙辰 Bing ChenYang Fire Dragon28 January 20364 February 2036FireEarth

Incense scents by element

No classical text we found assigns modern incense materials to BaZi elements. This grouping is Dupa Incense's editorial reading of the traditional taste, season and color links, so treat it as a starting point.

How this works, and what it can't do

The four pillars use the stem-branch cycle. The year changes at Lichun and months change at the twelve "jie" solar terms, not at the lunar month. We checked our engine against the lunar-python library on thousands of dates, and checked lunar dates and solar terms against the Hong Kong Observatory's 2026 and 2027 tables.

The hour pillar uses clock time, without the true solar time correction some practitioners apply. Between 23:00 and midnight we keep the same day pillar and take the hour stem from the next day. Schools differ on this, so a chart near a boundary may differ elsewhere.

Strength and favorable elements are simplified. We count stems and hidden stems, double the month branch, then call the Day Master strong above 55% support and weak below 42%. Real practitioners also weigh chart structure, climate and luck cycles, and they don't always agree.

Sources disagree on scents. For example, The Soul Terrain puts sandalwood under Wood and myrrh under Metal, while Monian Life puts both among deep base notes for Metal and Earth. We place sandalwood under Earth because the classic tables link Earth with sweetness and fragrance.

Please read this

We found no scientific evidence that BaZi, Kua numbers or element matching predict anything or change luck, health or wealth. This page is for culture and enjoyment, so don't base medical, money or legal decisions on it.

Dupa Incense hasn't tested whether a scent feels different in a given year. Incense smoke contains fine particles and irritant gases, so use good ventilation and avoid it if you have breathing problems.

The ritual uses come from the sources listed below, and some come only from a seller. Choosing incense by BaZi isn't part of these religious rites. It's a personal way to choose within what your tradition allows.

Sources

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Photo credits (20)

Photos were resized, converted to WebP and may be cropped for display. Each keeps its original license.