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Carnival Celebrations and Mardis Gras Parties Kick off WorldWide

by Rob Walker | February 22, 2009 at 10:20 am

1298 views | 15 Recommendations | 5 comments

Mardi Gras and Carnival celebrations took place in cities all over the world on the weekend, with big parties and parades in New Orleans ahead of the state holiday called Fat Tuesday.

Arrests were made in Greece Friday night as carnival street parties went out of control. Riot police flooded the streets of Thessaloniki as hundreds of teens burned garbage bins and set off fireworks. NowPublic member Teacher Dude wrote about the morning after it happened.

Riot police were deployed against teenagers who had blocked roads in the centre of Greece's second city, Thessaloniki last night during Carnivali celebrations, the Greek Orthodox equivalent of Mardi Gras. (Click here to see eyewitness video).

Crowds jammed streets for parades in cities and towns across Louisiana in the weekend leading up to the state holiday called Fat Tuesday.
It was a celebration marred by two accidents, one of them fatal, in the Cajun town of Carencro and a shooting late Friday on the New Orleans parade route.

Cops in St. Louis, Illinois arrested over 100 people, mostly for underage drinking, during a Soulard Mardi Gras party. That's up from 90 arrested last year.

As of 8:30 p.m. Saturday, officers made 105 arrests compared to 90 last year. Most were for underage drinking.

And of course the biggest party of all, Rio de Janeiro, kicked off on Friday as the mayor handed the keys to the King of Carnival, King Momo.

Rio de Janeiro's annual massive street party -- carnival -- officially began on Friday, as the mayor handed the keys to the Brazilian city to the portly King of Carnival - King Momo.
Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, symbolically relinquished control of the city. He handed over the keys to King Momo as samba dancers on stilts threw confetti on the journalists gathered around.

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Chirag Parekh

at 12:25 on February 22nd, 2009

Even a somber sky wont deter ardent party-ers from having a great time on Burbon Street

Chirag Parekh has contributed a photo to this story.

ShannonRenee

at 16:51 on February 22nd, 2009

I participated in a mini-parade at Mardi Gras. It was uber-cool to have a police escort as our group walked from our hotel to dinner.

ShannonRenee has contributed a photo to this story.

RMStringer

at 17:01 on February 22nd, 2009

We decided to go to the St Louis Mardi Gras and we had a all right. I have been to Galveston Mardi Gras many times before and in my opinion, it was far better than this one. I am not sure how the one in Galveston turned out this year because of the destruction that happened.

Paschen

at 05:13 on February 23rd, 2009

The Fasching or Karnewal or Mardi Gras Capital of Germany would Koln and Mainz where it is celebrated with great Parades and to much Wine, Schnaps and Beer. Birth rates do jump up as well every year following those festivities. 9 month latter of course.