A year ago May celebrated author Lawrence Wright saw the release of his novel The End of October which is about the development of a pandemic with the potential to change the face of the planet. Even though it was written well before COVID-19 there was an eerie sense that Wright had written this chillingly prescient story for that precise moment in human history.
In the novel a super-spreader event was the Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage which draws millions of the faithful to Mecca from every continent. Of course there is a heroic scientist who does everything possible to avert the catastrophe. It's a suspenseful and worthwhile read, so I won't tell you whether he is successful.
It turned out that the Hajj was all but cancelled in 2020 with only 1,000 Saudi participants, a symbolic gesture. We are in the middle of this year's Hajj and this year there will be 60,000 pilgrims, still a tiny fraction of 2,5 million who regularly attend, and again Saudis only. Instead of the great press of humanity which can actually make the event quite dangerous as well as thrilling there will be strict protocols and timed access. Robots will spray disinfectant in key areas.
Saudi Arabia has been working to vastly expand Mecca's ability to host pilgrims with a $60-billion US Grand Mosque expansion, but some question whether what is one of the Five Pillars of Islam will ever be the same.
One of the causes of the deadly spread of COVID in India was the falsification of vaccine certificates for pilgrims to the Kumbh Mela festival which attracted millions in May.
There has always been something powerful about pilgrimage, with its risks, for the devout of different religions -- consider the Camino in France and Spain for Christians. We just don't what the future will hold for these endeavours, as with so many aspects of life.
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