New Orleans, Pennsylvanians, celebrate Carnival

Feb 17, 2010, 13:32 GMT

Washington - Lavish floats, marching bands and extravagant costumes filled the streets of New Orleans on Tuesday as residents and guests marked Mardi Gras.

New Orleans hosts the most famous Carnival celebration in the United States.

But even conservative religious communities such as the Mennonites and German Baptists of southern Pennsylvania mark the occasion with the frying of traditional doughnuts, called 'fastnachts' (fasting nights), in accordance with the region's German heritage.

Floats from a variety of New Orleans' Carnival 'krewes' rolled through the city streets and thousands were expected to gather for the raucous party on the famed Bourbon Street Tuesday evening, the Times-Picayune newspaper reported.

The recent American football Super Bowl victory of the city's Saints team earlier this month provided even more cause for celebration at the annual Carnival celebrations.

Parades earlier in the week featured the team's star quarterback Drew Brees. The team's colours were on decorations throughout the city, where the victory also came to symbolize a comeback from the devastation of 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

Mardi Gras marks the last day before the start of Lent, as the 40 days leading up to the Christian holiday of Easter are known. Lent is traditionally a time of fasting and carnival celebrations around the world sprang up as a final chance to let loose before the sombre season.