Hajj 2023

Today (28 June 2023) is Aidiladha celebration in Saudi Arabia. Malaysia celebrates it tomorrow (29 June 2023).

Weather can be checked on the Internet at MSN, Bing and many weather websites.

Hajj 2023 is during hot weather, with temperatures soaring between 41C and 44C, and cooling off at night between 26C and 31C. The highest recorded temperature was 45C.

Madinah is hotter than Makkah.

Hajj pilgrims have to be prepared for hot weather for Hajj 2023.

Saudi Arabia has annual and monthly temperatures recorded since the 1950s. This makes it possible to study the Hajj rites and weather-related health outcomes since that time.

Death during the Hajj or after the Hajj rites can be due to high temperatures (heat stroke) and other causes including getting lost, extreme exhaustion and stampede. There may be other causes.

Deaths are accounted for and reported by the various countries who lost their Hajj pilgrims. It is therefore important to trace each Hajj pilgrim during and after each Hajj.

Malaysia is lucky because it has a good setup for managing its Hajj pilgrims. Malaysia sends about 3,000 Hajj pilgrims annually except during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021. Malaysians continued to perform the Hajj from 2022 onward.

There are private Malaysian companies that manage Hajj pilgrims from Malaysia for the annual Hajj. They include about 20 companies. These companies provide better hotels and treatment for their clients. However, the tents in Mina are limited and are distributed among the many Hajj travel agents and can be more congested with bulky furniture compared to empty tents provided by Tabung Haji (TH). Sometimes, men and women share the same tent under the private companies.

The price of a Hajj package differs between TH and the private companies. A first-time Hajj pilgrim may pay less than RM10,00 while a second-time Hajj Pilgrim may pay RM30,000 under TH. The prices are much higher for Hajj packages offered by the private companies.