Mardi Gras in New Orleans Mardi Gras in New Orleans The holiday of Mardi Gras is celebrated in Southern Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday (the start of lent in the Western Christian tradition). Usually there is one major parade each day (weather permitting); many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the Mardi Gras season. In the final week, many events occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities, including parades and balls (some of them
Rio de Janeiro themselves as ⅓ European, ⅓ African and ⅓ Amerindian before the tests, and yet their ancestry on average reached 80% European. Other studies showed similar results Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and has a rapidly expanding population and rapidly growing area due to rapid urbanization. The Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, according to 2009 research from Fundação Getúlio Vargas (known as ), ranks first in Brazil in the percentage of Catholics (51.1%) living there. Rio de Janeiro city also ranks fifth among Brazilian state capital cities in the percentage of its population