Since the dawn of the first day of Eid al-Adha, 10 Dhulhijjah or 11 August 2019, pilgrims have begun to perform the rituals of throwing pebbles at Mina, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) has reported.
The Hajj ritual involves throwing seven pebbles in sucession at a stone monument called Jamrat Al-Aqabah from the four-storeyed Jamarat facility. The ritual symbolically stones the devil.
According to the SPA, the flow was smooth with security, health, ambulance, hygiene and civil defense services on standby.
As of 10 August, 2019, SPA reported KSA General Authority of Statistics figures of 2,489,406 Hajj pilgrims, including 1,855,027 pilgrims from outside the kingdom. There were 634,379 domestic pilgrims, of whom 67% are non-Saudis.
Of these, there are 1,385,234 male pilgrims, and 1,104,172 female pilgrims. There are 117,731 more pilgrims compared to Hajj the previous year, which hosted 2,371,675 pilgrims.
According to the SPA, previous Hajj rituals have included:
- Arafat Day
Falling on 9 Dhulhijjah (10 August), this is when pilgrims perform the shortened dhuhr and asr prayers together at noon on the Mount of
Arafat, appealing to Allah to forgive their sins and thanking him for facilitating their pilgrimage.They then proceed on foot or by bus or train to Muzdalifah Valley.
Those who walk move along the world's longest pedestrian path. The 25 km path leads from Arafat to Mina through Muzdalifah.
Overnighting in Muzdalifah Valley on 10 August, pilgrims perform the maghrib
prayer and then the shortened isha prayer; stay the night; collect pebbles,
then head for Mina to stone the jamarat at sunrise.
- Tarwiyah Day, the start of the Hajj
Falling on 8 Dhulhijjah, 9 August, pilgrims travel on this day from Makkah to Mina. They stay overnight in Mina, where they pray till sunrise and then move to Arafat.
Al-Jisr (bridge) Hospital in Mina received 766 pilgrims, including 175 emergency cases, on August 10, the SPA added.
The hospital has 180 beds and more than 400 staff members serving the pilgrims around the clock.
- Replacement of the kiswah (كسوة الكعبة)
The ceremony to replace the kiswah, the black fabric cover of the K'abah, occurred on August 8, or 9 Dhulhijjah. The ceremony was carried out by 160 technicians and makers. The kiswah is made from 670 kg of raw silk, 120 kg of gold wire and 100 kg of silver wire.
As part of the Makkah Road Initiative, where travel, immigration and
customs services are finalised by pilgrims at their departure city, the SPA said 1,860,000 electronic Hajj visas were issued for pilgrims without
requiring them to visit the relevant embassies. More than 36,000 visas were issued to Malaysian pilgrims alone.
Initiatives to enhance Hajj logistics are part of the SR100 billion Pilgrims Services Program, which is in line with the Kingdom 2030 vision.
The KSA Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC)
separately announced via SPA that 8 Dhulhijjah
saw 18 million and 4.6
million international calls in Makkah, with 99% success rate. Data consumption reached 1,921 thousand terabytes, an increase of 31% over last year.
Explore:
View pictures at the KSA Centre of International Communications' Twitter stream.
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