AP - The weather was sunny and mild Sunday as revelers in this fun-starved city gathered for a daylong extravaganza of Carnival season parades, including two of the biggest and glitziest.

AP - The weather was sunny and mild Sunday as revelers in this fun-starved city gathered for a day-long extravaganza of Carnival season parades, including two of the biggest and glitziest.

Reuters - The crowds are smaller at New Orleans' first post-Katrina Mardi Gras parades but there is no shortage of fiendishly satirical wit on floats lampooning public figures and agencies with any connection to the devastating hurricane.

Is it too soon for a city devastated by a hurricane six months ago to hold a party? In New Orleans, some residents say it's much needed therapy, but others say the city isn't ready. Processions are channeled along a single path -- away from lingering Katrina eyesores -- and largely along picturesque St. Charles Avenue, but some parades will end at the city's convention center, where thousands of suffering residents awaited rescue in the days after the hurricane's wind, rain and floods.

Is it too soon for a city devastated by a hurricane six months ago to hold a party? In New Orleans, some residents say it's much needed therapy, but others say the city isn't ready. Processions are channeled along a single path -- away from lingering Katrina eyesores -- and largely along picturesque St. Charles Avenue, but some parades will end at the city's convention center, where thousands of suffering residents awaited rescue in the days after the hurricane's wind, rain and floods.

Is it too soon for a city devastated by a hurricane six months ago to hold a party? In New Orleans, some residents say it's much needed therapy, but others say the city isn't ready. Processions are channeled along a single path -- away from lingering Katrina eyesores -- and largely along picturesque St. Charles Avenue, but some parades will end at the city's convention center, where thousands of suffering residents awaited rescue in the days after the hurricane's wind, rain and floods.

Is it too soon for a city devastated by a hurricane six months ago to hold a party? In New Orleans, some residents say it's much needed therapy, but others say the city isn't ready. Processions are channeled along a single path -- away from lingering Katrina eyesores -- and largely along picturesque St. Charles Avenue, but some parades will end at the city's convention center, where thousands of suffering residents awaited rescue in the days after the hurricane's wind, rain and floods.

Reuters - It isn't surprising that shoes are an obsession with the beauties who grace Brazil's Carnival parades -- they're generally the biggest things they wear below the neck.

Reuters - It isn't surprising that shoes are an obsession with the beauties who grace Brazil's Carnival parades -- they're generally the biggest things they wear below the neck.

AP - In the final countdown to the city's first Mardi Gras celebration after Hurricane Katrina, there are parades and parties — but also sobering reminders of loss.

AP - The first of the major Mardi Gras parades with marching bands, brightly decorated floats and flying plastic beads rolled down New Orleans' streets Saturday, greeted by small but celebratory crowds.

AFP - Mardi Gras parades rolled ahead in New Orleans, offering hope for people still haunted by the devastating Hurricane Katrina that flooded most of the city six months ago.

AP - The first of the major Mardi Gras parades with marching bands, brightly decorated floats and flying plastic beads rolled down New Orleans' streets Saturday, greeted by small but celebratory crowds.

Reuters - Mardi Gras parades began rolling in New Orleans on Saturday, a symbol for many of both the city's proud commitment to its singular heritage and the deep uncertainties that cloud its recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

AP - The convention center that became a squalid evacuation shelter in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina reopens on Friday — the day before the city's first major Mardi Gras parades roll — in an encouraging sign for New Orleans' tourism industry.

Reuters - New Orleans' Mardi Gras season came to life on Saturday as thousands of revelers lined the streets for a parade that eased the pain of Hurricane Katrina with a dose of satirical humor and debauchery.