Entertainment

Mardi Gras: Last Tipsy Revelers Sent Home, Trash Swept Up

Published

11 years ago

February 18, 2015

Revelers dance to a brass band in the French Quarter on Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015. Revelers in glitzy costumes filled the streets of New Orleans for the annual fat Tuesday bash, opening a day of partying, parades and good-natured jostling for beads and trinkets tossed from passing floats. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Mardi Gras 2015 is officially over and the last tipsy revelers in New Orleans have been cleared from city streets.

At the stroke of midnight, New Orleans police on horseback rode down the French Quarter’s main tourist thoroughfare, Bourbon Street, sending home the last revelers from the “Fat Tuesday” bash in this Mississippi River port city.

City crews before dawn Wednesday began sweeping up tons of trash, discarded food and plastic beads that had been tossed from the Mardi Gras floats during parades the day before. City officials have said up to 150 tons of trash would be collected — making it appear as if the parades never happened.

Each year, the unabashed Mardi Gras celebrations by costumed revelers mark the prelude to the solemn Catholic religious season of Lent.

And with temperatures near freezing on Tuesday, almost everyone was bundled up even along Bourbon Street, where costumes usually tend toward the skimpy during Mardi Gras.

“You can’t tell, but we’ve got Mardi Gras shirts on,” said Tiffany Cannon, watching Tuesday’s first big parade with her 8-year-old son, Eli, tucked up in warm layers. The youngster had a blue scarf over his chin and mouth and a large fuzzy hat to ward off temperatures Tuesday that began in the mid-30s.

No major incidents were reported Tuesday by police. But a 23-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman fell from different floats in a truck parade in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said. The man was in stable condition and the woman was expected to be treated and released, said Col. John Fortunato, the sheriff’s spokesman.

Tuesday’s main celebration kicked off when a retired musician, Pete Fountain, launched a 10-mile stroll by his Half-Fast Walking Club through the city. Many fortified themselves agains the cold with a breakfast of sandwiches, coffee and brandy-fortified milk punch.

“There was beer and water, too. But most people stuck with the milk punch,” said Ralph Jukkola, on his fourth walk with Fountain’s club.

After Fountain’s group, major parades of Zulu, Rex and others followed down the streets, their costumed participants tossing trinkets and plastic bead necklaces to revelers lining the sidewalks and median strips.

The crowd was thick along the main St. Charles Avenue, where Zulu’s parade route merged with that of Rex, one of the most elaborate. Rex was followed by two long “truck parades” — floats built up from flatbed trailers and decorated by costumed riders.

Matching gray quilted jackets hid the gowns worn by young women on the “maids” float in the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club’s popular parade.

As Zulu passed, Ashley English said she was too cold to show off her costume.

“I have a corset on. You just can’t see it,” she said, pulling at the neck of her leather jacket. The corset was purple, she said, to go with her green and gold leggings.

Purple, green and gold were introduced as the colors of Mardi Gras in 1872, when a group of businessmen first crowned one of their own “Rex, king of Carnival.”

Because of the cold weather, many wore extra layers of sweat shirts and jeans under costumes made to look like clowns or animals.

Erin Buran of New Orleans wore a white jacket and feathery angel wings but didn’t mind the cold.

“My angel wings have tequila in them,” she said, showing off the mouthpiece of a hydration backpack covered by the wings.

___

Associated Press writer Stacey Plaisance contributed to this report.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 31, 2025 – January 6, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 31, 2025 – January 6, 2026

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January 2, 2026

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 24 – 30, 2025

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Alameda County

Bling It On: Holiday Lights Brighten Dark Nights All Around the Bay

On the block where I grew up in the 1960s, it was an unwritten agreement among the owners of those row homes to put up holiday lights: around the front window and door, along the porch banister, etc. Some put the Christmas tree in the window, and you could see it through the open slats of the blinds.

Published

3 weeks ago

December 21, 2025

Oakland Post

Christmas lights on a house near the writer’s residence in Oakland. Photo by Joseph Shangosola.

By Wanda Ravernell

I have always liked Christmas lights.

From my desk at my front window, I feel a quiet joy when the lights on the house across the street come on just as night falls.

My father, the renegade of the block, made no effort with lights, so my mother hung a wreath with two bells in the window. Just enough to let you know someone was at home.

Two doors down was a different story. Mr. King, the overachiever of the block, went all out for Christmas: The tree in the window, the lights along the roof and a Santa on his sleigh on the porch roof.

There are a few ‘Mr. Kings’ in my neighborhood.

In particular is the gentleman down the street. For Halloween, they erected a 10-foot skeleton in the yard, placed ‘shrunken heads’ on fence poles, pumpkins on steps and swooping bat wings from the porch roof. They have not held back for Christmas.

The skeleton stayed up this year, this time swathed in lights, as is every other inch of the house front. It is a light show that rivals the one in the old Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia.

I would hate to see their light bill…

As the shortest day of the year approaches, make Mr. King’s spirit happy and get out and see the lights in your own neighborhood, shopping plazas and merchant areas.

Here are some places recommended by 510 Families and Johnny FunCheap.

Oakland

Oakland’s Temple Hill Holiday Lights and Gardens is the place to go for a drive-by or a leisurely stroll for a religious holiday experience. Wear a jacket, because it’s chilly outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at 4220 Lincoln Ave., particularly after dark. The gardens are open all day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with the lights on from dusk until closing.

Alameda

Just across the High Street Bridge from Oakland, you’ll find Christmas Tree Lane in Alameda.

On Thompson Avenue between High Street and Fernside drive, displays range from classic trees and blow-ups to a comedic response to the film “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Lights turn on at dusk and can be seen through the first week in January.

Berkeley

The Fourth Street business district from University Avenue to Virginia Street in Berkeley comes alive with lights beginning at 5 p.m. through Jan. 1, 2026.

There’s also a display at one house at 928 Arlington St., and, for children, the Tilden Park Carousel Winter Wonderland runs through Jan. 4, 2026. Closed Christmas Day. For more information and tickets, call (510) 559-1004.

Richmond

The Sundar Shadi Holiday Display, featuring a recreation of the town of Bethlehem with life-size figures, is open through Dec. 26 at 7501 Moeser Lane in El Cerrito.

Marin County

In Marin, the go-to spot for ‘oohs and ahhs’ is the Holiday Light Spectacular from 4-9 p.m. through Jan. 4, 2026, at Marin Center Fairgrounds at 10 Ave of the Flags in San Rafael through Jan. 4. Displays dazzle, with lighted walkways and activities almost daily. For more info, go to: www.marincounty.gov/departments/cultural-services/department-sponsored-events/holiday-light-spectacular

The arches at Marin County Civic Center at 3501 Civic Center Dr. will also be illuminated nightly.

San Francisco

Look for light installations in Golden Gate Park, chocolate and cheer at Ghirardelli Square, and downtown, the ice rink in Union Square and the holiday tree in Civic Center Plaza are enchanting spots day and night. For neighborhoods, you can’t beat the streets in Noe Valley, Pacific Heights, and Bernal Heights. For glee and over-the-top glitz there’s the Castro, particularly at 68 Castro Street.

Livermore

The winner of the 2024 Great Light Flight award, Deacon Dave has set up his display with a group of creative volunteers at 352 Hillcrest Avenue since 1982. See it through Jan. 1, 2026. For more info, go to https://www.casadelpomba.com

Fremont

Crippsmas Place is a community of over 90 decorated homes with candy canes passed out nightly through Dec. 31. A tradition since 1967, the event features visits by Mr. and Mrs. Claus on Dec. 18 and Dec. 23 and entertainment by the Tri-M Honor Society at 6 p.m. on Dec. 22. Chrippsmas Place is located on: Cripps Place, Asquith Place, Nicolet Court, Wellington Place, Perkins Street, and the stretch of Nicolet Avenue between Gibraltar Drive and Perkins Street.