Muslims around the world celebrated the start of Eiduul Azha on Saturday as more than two million pilgrims took part in one of the final rites of the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Because Eid follows the Muslim lunar calendar that depends on sightings of the moon, some Muslims will be celebrating the first day of Eidul Azha on Sunday, including Iraqi Shias and the majority of Indonesians in the world’s most populous Muslim nation of 240 million. Pakistan will celebrate on Monday.
In Mina, a desert tent city just outside the Saudi holy city of Makkah, pilgrims cast pebbles in a symbolic stoning of the devil. Male pilgrims changed out of their white pilgrim robes and shaved their heads as a sign of renewal. Women clipped a lock of hair.
Though pilgrims will repeat the stoning ritual for two more days, they can now be referred to as “hajjis,” a term of honour for completing the pilgrimage.
“I feel good and satisfied with who I am and for the chance to come to the hajj this year,” said Palestinian pilgrim Mona Abu-Raya. “I am so happy that I am here.”
Not all were as fortunate. Muslims from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea — the countries hardest hit in the Ebola epidemic — were not given visas by Saudi Arabia as a precaution against the virus, a measure that affected 7,400 would-be pilgrims from these nations.
Elhadj Mansour Sow, a 54-year-old herder from Guinea, said he sold 20 cattle from his herd to go to Makkah only to find out later he could not even apply for a visa.
“If I had known that, I would not have sold these companions. I have tears in my eyes when I think of those animals,” he said.
In Guinea, where Muslims make up the majority, the usual fields and squares where people gather to pray on Eidul Azha were empty on Saturday, as people heeded their government’s warning to avoid large gatherings.
In Sierra Leone, which also has a sizable Muslim population, the United Council of Imams warned believers not to shake hands or embrace.
In the northern Iraqi village of Kalak, 22 miles (35 kilometres) west of the Kurdish capital, Irbil, 68 year-old herder Hashim Mohammed said he was reeling from having to flee shelling by militants from the extremist Islamic State Group.
The summer attack also scattered many of his 250 sheep, and those that were left are too small to be sold over the Eid holiday.
“When they get skinny, we can’t sell them,” he said.
At a mosque in the Turkish border town of Suruc, Syrian refugees joined Turks in traditional Eid morning prayers as fierce fighting between Kurdish forces and Islamic State militants continued to rage across the border, in the Syrian town of Kobani.
“We want to go back to our homes and celebrate Eid like other people,” said Osman Xoja, a 42 year-old Syrian refugee.
