As people head back to work this Tuesday after the long holiday weekend, New Orleans is celebrating Mardi Gras with beads flying, crawfish boiling, and parades rolling.
Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, marks the climax and end of the week-long Carnival season, offering a final chance for indulgence, feasting and revelry.
This joyous farewell to Carnival always falls the day before Ash Wednesday, preceding the Christian Lent period of sacrifice and reflection.
Among the final parades in Louisiana’s most populous city, world-famous for its Mardi Gras bash, is one hosted by the Zulu Social Aide & Pleasure Club.
Marchers and float riders in the Zulu parade wear African-inspired garb and toss "throws" – trinkets such as plastic beads, sweets, doubloons, stuffed animals, cups and toys. The parade's signature "throw" is hand-decorated coconuts, coveted by many revellers.
Later in the day Rex, the King of Carnival parade will roll along St. Charles Avenue, lined by paradegoers and stately oak trees covered in Spanish moss and beads.
Carnival events are popular for their spectacular and enormous floats, and also the intricately crafted outfits worn.
These include the Black masking Indians, whose beaded and bejeweled costumes are topped with feathered headdresses, or paradegoers walking the French Quarter in homemade costumes that capture the unique spirit of the Big Easy.
The good times will roll not just in New Orleans but all across the state, from exclusive balls to the Cajun French tradition of the Courir de Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday Run.
This is a rural event in Central Louisiana featuring costumed participants performing, begging for ingredients and chasing after live chickens to be cooked in a communal gumbo.
Parades are also held in other Gulf Coast cities such as Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, and there are other world-renowned celebrations in Brazil and Europe.
