Tourism officials from New Orleans have announced that they did not believe that the global economic crisis would affect the Mardi Gras celebrations, adding that before the event the hotels had been almost fully booked, which predicted large crowds attending the festivities.

For Tuesday, the last day of parades, throngs of revelers were expected, with Jim Belushi and his Sacred Hearts band having kicked off the final festivities in the morning with performances of hit songs such as „Soul Man” and „Hard to Handle.”

The Mardi Gras celebrations are scheduled to end at midnight Tuesday, while one day later, catholics will be flooding the churches to have ashes daubed on their foreheads as they are preparing to enter the 40-days period of prayer and penitence all throughout the Lent before Easter.

The last day of festivities is called Fat Tuesday, which is a day when catholics indulge in excess and let themselves prey to all sorts of foods and drinks before Ash Wednesday comes and they have to give up all those guilty pleasures for more than a month.

In New Orleans, Fat Tuesday has been celebrated ever since French Settlers arrived in the 1700s, the tradition having stood the test of time until today.

The period during which Mardi Gras is celebrated varies from city to city, in Mobile, Alabama for example, the events beginning in November, while the cities that are most famous worldwide for their festivities being Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and New Orleans, Louisiana.