hey everyone this is Matt Paco I'm one
of the video producers for Lonely Planet
hi everyone my name is Tara Casino I'm
one of the authors at Lonely Planet and
I most recently wrote the Hajj guide in
the learning planet to Saudi Arabia this
week's question is something that nearly
the 2 billion Muslims around the world
are probably asking will there be Hajj
in 2021 tarek also started off by
explaining what is Hajj and why is that
important to the Muslims in the world
the Hajj is a pilgrimage to Makkah in
Saudi Arabia and it falls on certain
dates in what is the 12th month of the
Islamic calendar known as dulhija which
means the month of pilgrimage and it
lasts for about five days and and during
the Hajj it's all about following rights
and rituals set out by the prophet
Muhammad but these rights and rituals
can be linked all the way back to the
prophet Abraham so how did kobit 19
affect Hajj in 2020 it's actually been
canceled for pandemics in the past but
what we mean by canceled is that Saudi
Arabia refused to allow anybody from
outside of the country come into the
country to perform the Hajj the Hajj did
actually go ahead but it went ahead for
only a thousand very privileged
individuals who already were within the
borders July will be the Hajj people are
probably starting to plan now
what should they start doing to plan for
the Hajj this year the most important
thing I think for anybody that wants to
go is to register their interests early
on with Hajj agents they will deal with
all the logistics of of the various
accommodations and the reason the
registration early is important is
because the Hajj agents that I've spoken
to have made it very very clear they are
not expecting anywhere near the number
of visas normally allocated to each
country because of course
um some degree of social distancing even
if if by some miracle the whole world is
vaccinated by that time Saudi Arabia
will still insist on some degree of
social distancing which as you've seen
from pictures and videos was
non-existent in the past in the Hajj so
let's talk about Mecca I noticed you
pronounced it differently Maca like
which is the preferred way Mecca or Maca
uh so so Muslims acknowledge it as
Makkah Mecca is the anglicized way of
saying the the name
so you did the harsh diaries for us in
2019 about going to Hajj for the first
time for you tell us what was it like
going to Hajj and how did it feel being
in Makkah and who did you travel with
for me the the Hajj was very very
special for a number of reasons we
believe God has to invite you so the
only other time you're gonna go is
because you've received an invitation
but the most um significant thing about
my Hajj was the fact that I had been
inviting with my mother my mother really
really wanted to go on the Hajj for her
second time because she was she wanted
to perform the Hajj in Liu for her
father who had passed on without being
in a position to perform the Hajj and so
it meant a lot for her having already
done her own Hajj to be able to go on
this journey and to be able to do
something for someone who was no longer
here we did have to occasionally put her
in a wheelchair just to move her about
because the demands were too great
it felt like a very very major honor
is there any last thing you want to tell
the Lonely Planet audience about Hajj or
Saudi Arabia for this coming year
obviously with all these new strains
coming up Matt we don't know what the
future holds but what I would say is for
anyone thinking about going to the house
this year you'll probably go into a
country which has one of the most
rigorous and robust protocols in place