People burn incense and pray for blessings in the temple.
Tips
register
焚 is literary and formal. In everyday speech, 烧 (shāo) is the common word for 'burn'. 焚 appears in set phrases like 焚烧 (fénshāo), 焚毁 (fénhuǐ), and 焚香 (fénxiāng).
history
Famous in the phrase 焚书坑儒 (fénshū kēngrú) — 'burning books and burying scholars alive' — referring to Qin Shi Huang's suppression of intellectual thought.
