(Riya Singh, Intern Journalist): Muslim pilgrims have started to arrive in Mecca for hajj, while Saudi officials are juggling the kingdom’s supervision of one of the main foundations of Islam with tourist health in the midst of a global pandemic. The hajj, which begins on Wednesday, usually attracts about 2.5 million people in one of the world’s biggest meetings of Muslims from around the world for five intensive days of worship.
This year, the Hajj Ministry of Saudi Arabia has announced that between 1,000 and 10,000 people who already live in the kingdom will be permitted to make the pilgrimage. Two-thirds of those pilgrims will come from among Saudi Arabia’s foreign citizens, and one third will be Saudi citizens.
This year the Saudi government would pay all pilgrims’ costs, supplying them with food, hotel lodging, transportation, and health care. Normally the hajj would cost pilgrims thousands of dollars that save the journey for a lifetime. Saudi Arabia also generates billions of dollars in sales per year.
Though the hajj often attracts all age groups, this year pilgrims were expected to be in good health between the ages of 20 and 50. Pilgrims will still have to wear face masks this year, and will only be able to drink holy water from the Zamzam well in Mecca, which has been prepackaged in plastic bottles. Pebbles that are normally picked up by pilgrims along hajj routes for throwing away evil must be sterilized and bagged before being distributed to the pilgrims. Pilgrims will carry their own prayer rugs, and they would be expected to pray at a distance from each other, not crowded shoulder to shoulder.
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