Alabama’s port city is holding a main event of its Carnival season, a quirky bash honoring the man credited with helping make the nation’s first Mardi Gras celebration what it is.
A parade rider throws beads on Joe Cain Day during Mardi Gras in Mobile, Ala., Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. Joe Cain Day, named for a clerk who started Mobile's modern Mardi Gras by dressing up and parading through town in the late 1860s after the Civil War, roared back to life after taking a year off because of the pandemic.
Like New Orleans, its much larger Gulf Coast neighbor to the west, Mobile has elaborate, professionally produced parades, and balls where women wear long gowns and men dress in tuxedos. Members of social groups called krewes spend thousands on costumes and items to throw from floats.But some of the biggest crowds of the season in Mobile are for the Joe Cain Procession, a down-home mix of fun and local fable where anyone can join in a parade for free.
“It's everybody's parade. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, Black or white, man or woman. Everybody is having fun,” said McQuade.With most of the 2021 Carnival season canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, only a few activities were held in Mobile last year. Still, dozens showed up at the Joe Cain house on last year's Sunday before Fat Tuesday for a smaller-than-normal party.
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