MOUNT ATHOS

The famed incenses from the Orthodox monasteries perched atop Mount Athos in Macedonia, Northern Greece, have been produced since the 10th century with fragrant resins from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Mixed, dried, and ground, they bring fragrance to the preparations burned during services and prayer.On Mount Athos, commonly named “Holy Mountain”, on the Chalkidike Peninsula, time has come to a halt. On its steep, rocky slopes, Orthodox monks live in twenty monasteries. For more than a millennium, Mount Athos has enjoyed the special status of “Monastic Republic of Mount Athos”. Perfumed incense is made by monks in a few monasteries, following centuries-old techniques.Since the dawn of time, humankind has been burning incense and resins to elevate the surrounding atmosphere. There has always been something inscrutable, magical and spiritual about this ritual, probably because of the flame consuming the incense, slowly, but also because of the smoke, bewitching, surreal, drawing whirling patterns towards the sky. The rising smoke becomes a mysterious and fragrant path paving the way between gods and men.Light the incense! You have to burn to be fragrant.Persian mystic poet Rumi (1207-1273)