Hajj

The last couple of days have been of public holidays here in Saudi Arabia because of the Hajj. We have been working anyway though; will compensate these days at Christmas, which for obvious reasons isn't celebrated here.

The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, the largest annual pilgrimage in the world and the fifth pillar of Islam, a moral obligation that every muslim must carry out at least once in their lifetime.

The Hajj takes place from the 7th to the 13th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th month is the Islamic calendar. Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, eleven days shorter than the western Gregorian calendar, the Gregorian date of the Hajj changes every year, shifting eleven days.

Pilgrims join processions of hundreds of thousands of people who converge in Mecca walking couter-clockwise around the Ka'bah (cube shaped building which acts as the Muslim direction of prayer), kissing the black stone in the corner of the Ka'bah, running back and forth between the hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah, drinking from the Zamzam well, going to the plains of mount Arafat to stand in vigil and throwing stones in the ritual 'Stoning of the Devil'. The pilgrims then shave their heads, perform a ritual of animal sacrifice and celebrate the three day global festival of Eid al-Adha.