The Mecca Diaries: Vice Goes To Mecca for Hajj
As most of us finish off yesterday’s turkey, Muslims around the world celebrate their own holiday today with end of the Hadj, which is called Eid. To mark the occasion today on VBS is The Mecca Diaries. Last year VICE founder Suroosh Alvi documented his own religious and cultural whirlwind homage to Mecca.
If you think going counter clock wise around a big black box and stoning Satan three times is hard, try doing it with three million people and your parents.
Two Million Muslims Prepare To Stone Devil At Haj
From Reuters:
MUZDALIFA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Some two million Muslims headed to Muzdalifa on Thursday after spending the day at the plain of Arafat to prepare to cast stones at the devil in the most dangerous part of the annual haj pilgrimage.
Bright weather greeted the pilgrims after heavy rain hit the nearby city of Jeddah, gateway to Mecca, on Wednesday. Some 77 people were killed, none of them pilgrims, most of whom were swept away by currents and drowned, state television said.
At Muzdalifa, the pilgrims will collect pebbles to throw at walls at the Jamarat Bridge on three occasions over the next three days in an act that symbolizes the rejection of the devil’s temptations.
The bridge has been the scene of a number of deadly stampedes — 362 people were…
