Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday - is the often raucous end to the pre-Lenten Carnival season. The celebration characterized by family friendly parades uptown and in the suburbs - and by heavy drinking and lots of near-nudity in the French Quarter - is highlighted by 12 days of parades and parties.
Temperatures were expected to rise to about the record of 81 degrees in New Orleans, an indicator that flesh-flashing in the bawdy French Quarter was likely to be greater than usual.
While much of the county cast ballots in party primaries, the presidential race inspired some revelers to don costumes with political themes. Kim Disselliss, 49, simply taped a sign to her back that depicted Sen. Clinton dressed up as George Washington and read, "Monica Lewinsky's X-Boyfriend's Wife for President. 2 for 1 Sale."
While the walking club was on its way, floats of the Zulu parade headed for their starting point. Zulu, the black community's oldest parade, was to be followed by the Rex parade, with businessman John E. Koerner III reigning as Rex, King of Carnival and Monarch of Merriment.
Rex would be followed by hundreds of gaily decorated truck floats, many created by families and neighborhood Carnival clubs. Police expected the last floats wouldn't reach the end of the parade routes until late afternoon.
In suburban Jefferson Parish and elsewhere in south Louisiana, revelers lined up on parade routes or set up family picnics.
In Cajun country, costumed riders on horseback set out on their annual Courir du Mardi Gras, a town-to-town celebration. Hundreds of people registered for the Courir de Mardi Gras in Eunice, a bayou community 150 miles west of New Orleans. Hundreds were on horseback and scores of others rode along in pickup trucks or on flatbed trailers.
"It's just heritage. It's Louisiana. We're crazy," said Courir participant Cody Granger, 24, wearing what looked like surgical scrubs decorated with the New Orleans Saints' logo.
In a sign that New Orleans has yet to recover fully from the hurricanes of 2005, this year's King Zulu, businessman Frank Boutte, is still living in Houston because Katrina's flooding damaged his Lakefront home. Still, the Zulu parade was up to pre-storm standards, with 1,200 riders on 27 floats.
Zulu was being led by Mayor Ray Nagin, riding on horseback and clad as an Indian in buckskins and a white headdress.
Cathy and James Pavageau of Metairie, setting up a tent in the median of St. Charles Avenue - the city's main parade route - said they thought the crowd was a bit bigger than it has been recently. Arriving at 6 a.m. let them get spots closer to Lee Circle in the past two years, but not this year, they said.
They expected about a dozen people to join them for the climax of a celebration marred this year by shootings that have injured nine people.
"We worry. But what can you do?" Pavageau said. "You can't just stay in your house. We just pray everything is OK."
Only sporadic violence has marred the celebration. At least eight people had been wounded by gunshots, five of them on Saturday.
Police said 1,100 officers, state troopers and National Guardsmen have been positioned along parade routes since the season began.
