CNN - Mardi Gras 1998 - Feb. 23, 1998

Mardi Gras 1998

Amazon invades Rio for Carnival finale

Dancers dressed as Indians and butterflies and dazzling floats depicting rain forest devastation gave an Amazon flavor to the final climactic night of Rio's Carnival parades on Monday.

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Sardinia celebrates Carnival with a capital 'sea'

The Italian island of Sardinia didn't have to worry about rain on its parade. For the second year in a row, it took its Carnival underwater, where 150 divers participated in a procession featuring mock whales and other sea monsters.

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Cologne Carnival lampoons Clinton, Kohl

A parody of President Clinton figured in Cologne's traditional Rose Monday parade that ends the Carnival season. More than one million revelers, some dressed as clowns and witches, packed the city for the event.

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In Belgium, one of the oldest and oddest Mardi Gras traditions

The menfolk of Belgium's "black country" have a tough, no-nonsense reputation forged by generations of toil in coal mines and textile mills. Yet for one wild day each year, they dress up in towering ostrich-feather headgear, frilly lace collars and garish scarlet-and-yellow outfits to prance through the streets hurling oranges at passersby.

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Samba schools take to Rio's streets as Carnival gets under way

Rio's spectacular Carnival burst into life on Sunday as 4,000 drummers and dancers from the first of 14 samba schools marched into the city's massive Sambadrome to the cheers of 70,000 spectators.

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Asian dancers take their places at Rio's most traditional samba school

When members of Rio's most traditional samba school parade Monday night, they will have some untraditional guests in their ranks: fans who learned to samba in faraway Japan.

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Non-stop New Orleans bash barrels toward Fat Tuesday

The streets of New Orleans were full of revelers over the weekend as the parades and parties leading up to Tuesday's climactic Mardi Gras got into full swing. Costumed paraders tossed miles of plastic beads and coins to outstretched hands.

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New Orleans locals fear Mardi Gras turning into tourist trap

More than just a fling before the austere religious festival of Lent, Mardi Gras has become a happening, the dazzling celebration that helped save this city when the oil ran out and the economy ran down. Now a lot of people fear the event has run out of control and become a caricature.

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Revelry takes to the canals for Carnival celebration

Venice is awash in color, as it has been for almost two weeks celebrating Carnival along with other European and American communities. The festivities culminate on Shrove Tuesday.

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