Saudi Arabia: On Saturday, as the enlarged Haj pilgrimage was coming to an end, pilgrims participated in the stoning of the devil ceremony by casting stones.
Small groups of worshipers traversed the Mina Valley near Makkah at earliest light to hurl stones at three concrete representations of Satan.
Approximately 2.5 million pilgrims from all over the world participated in the Haj in 2019, which is often one of the largest yearly religious gatherings in the world.
However, as the kingdom worked to contain the Covid-19 pandemic’s impacts, that number plummeted to just a few thousand in 2020 and 60,000 in 2021, all of whom were Saudi nationals or residents.This year, the number of participants was limited to one million fully immunised worshipers. Authorities estimated that about 900,000 people attended, with nearly 780,000 coming from outside the country on Friday.
Muslims throughout the world, who generally save for years to participate, had been deeply disappointed by the ban on international pilgrims for the previous two years.
One of the main drivers of Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry is the Haj, which costs at least $5,000 per person, and Umrah pilgrimages that take place at other times of the year.
