Hajj 2009, Arafat Vigil

Two events were set for the 2009 Hajj (or Haj), which this year has been blessed with good fortune, including dry weather for the Arafat Vigil, and most important, no tragic crushes of too many people. This page reports results for the Vigil, with a separate page for the Grand Prayers in Mecca and Stoning of the Devil on the 27th.

From a website describing the Hajj:

This week, millions of Muslims from around the world will, once again, make a pilgrimage to Mecca and the Kaaba.

So vital is this journey that it is known as "Hajj," one of the Five Pillars of Islam. According to the Islamic tradition, every Muslim - as long as he is in good health and is financially able - is obligated to take this pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime. Although the date of Hajj changes from year to year on the Gregorian calendar, the rituals are performed each year on the 8th-12th days of the Islamic month Dhu al-Hijah (the month of the Hajj). On Wednesday, millions of Muslims will begin Hajj 2009.

With the help of Arasikere Mukesh we learn that the main events for Haj are as follows:
1. On 26th Nov Thursday all people gather on the mountain (arafat) from morning to 6 pm.
2. On 27th Nov Friday people gather for grand prayer in Mecca from morning 6-1 pm.

The GCP event for the 26th was set for 06:00 to18:00, (0100 to 1300 UTC) The result is Chisquare 43074 on 43200 df, for p = 0.665 and Z = -0.426.

It is important to keep in mind that we have only a tiny statistical effect, so that it is always hard to distinguish signal from noise. This means that every "success" might be largely driven by chance, and every "null" might include a real signal overwhelmed by noise. In the long run, a real effect can be identified only by patiently accumulating replications of similar analyses.