e cross-cultural differences experienced by pilgrims during the
world’s largest religious ritual, ḥajj, have yet to be explored. It is worthwhile
to investigate this issue from an Indonesian perspective. is study uses a
phenomenological approach to examine cross-cultural differences experienced
by Acehnese pilgrims during ḥajj. The perceptions of Acehnese who have
never been to Mecca (‘villagers’) and Acehnese who stayed in Saudi Arabia
and its neighbouring countries (‘stayers’) were also probed. The findings
show that the pilgrims experienced cross-cultural differences in verbal
communication, body movement, physical appearance and dress, the use of
space, time, touch, voice, and smell. Cross-culturally, the pilgrims have a
different perspective to villagers and stayers. The pilgrims expressed culture
shock, while the villagers’ perceptions were primarily shaped by imagined
and unverified stories, and the stayers understood their pilgrimage through
their long experiences of residing in Arab countries.