Joyous Parades And Parties Kick Off Mardi Gras

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The lead-up to New Orleans’ annual Mardi Gras celebration is intensifying with events big and small.

Three parades are set for Friday night along historic St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans.

They are the first of more than two dozen such processions set in the city and suburbs between now and Mardi Gras, which falls this year on Feb. 21.

And there was a smaller scale celebration Friday morning at Galatoire’s Restaurant in the French Quarter, where the king and queen of the Mystic Krewe of Barkus – a pair of rescue dogs in crowns and capes – chowed down on lamb chops.