Top 10 Mardi Gras And Carnival Celebrations (PHOTOS)

Fat Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras. No matter what you call it, the last day before Lent's 40 days of repentance (between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday) brings out a wild side in populations around the world.

For over a month in some countries, locals take to the streets to parade, masquerade and promenade in a festive season known as Carnival. As the party nears its month-plus-long end, events heat up.

Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday" in English) rallies locals and visitors alike to the streets of cities like Rio, Venice and Mardi Gras to be over-the-top and naughty before turning religiously nice.

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Comments

[UncleBunny]

04:46 PM on 01/29/2012

Forgetting about Mobile, Alabama, the Mother of the Mystics, is inexcusable. The Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile run for over 2 weeks with street parades and a tradition of hundreds of years behind it. You'd list a faux Mardi Gras in Orlando, but leave out the Mobile?!?

[MrWho]

04:19 PM on 01/29/2012

No love for Mobile, AL? The oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the US! Come on Huff Post! You're really coming off as "elite" media. Universal Studios makes the list........for real? Come on son!!!!

[natchez]

01:21 PM on 01/29/2012

Whoops comment below should read Krewe da Vue not Krewe da Who...sorry

[natchez]

01:20 PM on 01/29/2012

Mardi Gras weekend in New Orleans starts the Thursday night before "Fat Tuesday" thats 6 days of parades. Yes the Parades do start several weekends before "Fat Tuesday" and the walking parade of Krewe da Who (the only walking parade through the Quarter) is (or should be) adults only for the themes...its great fun!

Where else in the United States can you have this much fun, parades and parties for 6 straight days?

[Victoria-nola]

06:32 PM on 01/27/2012

New Orleans was given short shrift in the description. Carnival starts on Twelfth Night (actually the first day that humans in the northern latitudes can perceive the days getting longer again) and runs through Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). Parties happen the entire time, parades start several weeks before MG, and balls happen throughout the entire period. King Cake parties start Twelfth Night and go throughout. The best parades, imo, are the walking parades that aren't in the official schedules.

[jstreet]

12:50 PM on 01/27/2012

This appears to be an add for airlines, if you read through the captions to the 'top five.'

[Psyctek]

12:47 PM on 01/27/2012

And where's Mobile, the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the US?

[sonobello06]

12:54 PM on 01/27/2012

I agree. Theirs is awesome....Everybody forgets about Mobile.

[Johnathan Fail]

01:55 PM on 01/27/2012

Agree.

[Bolkonsky]

12:43 PM on 01/27/2012

Austin, Tx puts on a pretty good, smaller indoor Carnaval Brasiliero

http://www.sambaparty.com/

[weghead]

12:35 PM on 01/27/2012

Rex does not run Tuesday night! It runs Tuesday morning a little after Zulu and on a slightly different route. There are no parades on Mardi Gras night in New Orleans, unless you count "the last parade" of the cops clearing out Bourdon Street at midnight.

[Bluedanube]

12:24 PM on 01/27/2012

Where's Salt Lake City on the list?

[ScottV]

12:50 PM on 01/27/2012

Right behind St. Louis.

[fdiaz16]

02:12 PM on 01/27/2012

in Utah