Landing at Ataturk Airport, Istanbul
I've just arrived in Istanbul for a meeting organized by OSI's Public Health Program on different approaches to monitoring in public health advocacy work. My flight, like everyone else's, was late because of a heavy snowfall; the lady who collected us at the airport told us that it snows perhaps three times a year in Istanbul. Stranger even than touching down in piles of snow at the warm edge of Europe was the scene that greeted us at the airport. I thought at first that a pop star or populist politician must be on my flight -- the view from the immigration desks out past baggage claim to the waiting area revealed what looked like hundreds of people waiting eagerly for someone to appear.
Around the baggage claim area, professional photographers snapped pictures of a few young men, but no one else waiting for their bags appeared to be excited. As I walked out with a group of other travelers, scattered groups applauded, and again, professional photographers and television cameras honed in on a few walking with me. The agent that picked us up at the airport explained that these were families waiting for their relatives to return from Mecca, following the Hajj. And indeed, I realized that we were surrounded by a sea of family groups, and that the hajji, dressed mostly in white and wearing sandals, had been in line with me at the immigration desks. Quite a turnout, considering that this must be tail end of Pilgrims (the Hajj ended at the end of January, according to the calendar I consulted) who stayed on a few extra days.
According to Wikipedia's article on the Hajj, the Saudi Arabian government, which oversees the holy sites, has had to limit the number of pilgrims who come each year; each Muslim country is allowed 1000 people for every million. Turkey, with a population of 69 million, is then allowed to send 69,000 Hajji per year -- which must keep the airport absolutely packed for most of the month, if the pilgrims' families come to see them off, and wait for their return. It's great to arrive at an airport full of excited people, waiting eagerly for someone's return -- as a constant traveler myself, I always look forward to the stops where someone is meeting me right off the plane. I imagine that the post-Hajj family reunion carries significant import -- but I'm glad to have gotten the peripheral frivolity on my own arrival to Istanbul.