More than 400 million people are expected to attend this year’s festivities — a once-every-12-years occasion — which began Monday and continue through the month of February.
Tag: pilgrimage
More than 1,300 people have died on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. It’s not just a personal tragedy for Muslim worshippers, it’s a warning from mother nature.
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Pillar Of Faith
Among the ruins of one of the world’s oldest surviving Byzantine churches, about 30 kilometers northwest of Aleppo, stand the remains of the pillar of Saint Simeon Stylites. The fifth-century ascetic monk is said to have lived 37 years as a hermit, perched on a platform at the top of a column. More than 1,500 […]
There is an economic explanation for why more Syrian refugee families in Jordan were able to make it to Mecca this year.
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Hajj Boycott, Big Enchilada, Bleached Reef
SPOTLIGHT: IRAN TO BOYCOTT HAJJ PILGRIMAGE Tensions between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are once again threatening to escalate. The two archenemies are already entangled in proxy wars against each other, in Syria and Yemen, and diplomatic ties between the two have been cut since Saudi Arabia executed a Shia cleric at the beginning […]
Hosting 30 million people in the world’s largest pilgrimage, Nashik is a temporary example of “extreme urbanism,” and researchers are studying what happens in the process.
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Pilgrim Pose
Going to Lourdes as a tourist, not as a devotee, you come across a diverse bunch: the ailing believers looking for a cure, the admirable volunteers taking care of them, the peddlers cashing in on people’s faith. When I went there 45 years ago, I took this shot of pilgrims waiting for a group photograph […]
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ordered a swift investigation, as well as a safety review, after Thursday’s stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage site of Mina which left at least 717 people dead and 863 hurt. On its Friday front page, Saudi daily Al Yaum quotes the king as saying that “the massive development […]
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Mecca Stampede, FARC Handshake, Exhumed Tsar
MORE THAN 300 DEAD IN MECCA STAMPEDE Photo: Omar Chatriwala At least 310 people taking part in the annual Hajj pilgrimage were killed in a stampede Thursday morning in Mina, near the Islamic holy city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, Al Jazeera quotes Saudi officials as saying. Thursday is the first day of the Muslim […]
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Camouflage Turbans
Jaisalmer, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, is nicknamed the “golden city of India” for the yellow sandstone used in building its houses. Maybe that also explains the choice for these men’s turbans, which like others, made our travels in this region especially colorful …
MECCA – Muslims from around the world are heading towards this Saudi Arabian city for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, the fifth pillar of Islam, which began this week. The five-day journey is the opportunity of a lifetime for many, and a most sacred moment of faith. Our digitally connected world also means it’s a moment […]
In Poland, Catholics have already seen it all on the religious front at home. To expand their spiritual horizons, many now look for new religiously significant destinations farther afield.
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At Least 38 Dead In Italy Bus Crash
BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch AVELLINO – A bus has plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy on Sunday night, leaving at least 38 people dead, rescue services say. The bus hit several vehicles before smashing through a parapet and toppling down a steep slope near the town of Avellino, in the Campania region. At least […]
RIO DE JANEIRO – This modern pilgrimage through the heart of South America began last Friday at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires. The church, where the current Pope used to preside, was jam-packed with 500 young people from a dozen different parishes, their parents, priests and friends, as Jorge Bergoglio’s successor Archbishop Mario Aurelio […]
BBC NEWS (UK), TIMES OF INDIA, HINDUSTAN TIMES (India) Worldcrunch ALLAHABAD – At least 36 pilgrims on their way back from the world’s largest religious festival in northern India have died in a stampede late Sunday. The death toll may rise again, as dozens of other injured were in a critical condition after the stampede […]