New Orleans Faithful Head to Churches

Just hours after police on horseback rode down Bourbon Street to clear the street of revelers and mark the official end of the Carnival season, thousands prepared to repent on Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday is the start of the 40-day period of Lent that includes Good Friday — when Christians recall Christ's crucifixion — and ends with the celebration of Easter.

The faithful readied themselves to file into churches across the city for services where many will have their foreheads marked by clergy with ashes to symbolize penance after the raucous Carnival season that culminated on Mardi Gras.

Clarinetist Pete Fountain kicked off Tuesday's festivities, leading 100 members of his Half-Fast Walking Club through the streets for the 47th time. Zulu, the predominantly black parade with 27 floats and 1,200 riders, followed and was one of at least 10 parades that rolled in the metro area.

In a sign that New Orleans has yet to recover fully from the hurricanes of 2005, businessman Frank Boutte, this year's King Zulu, is still living in Houston. Hurricane Katrina's floods damaged his Lakefront home and he has yet to return.

In Cajun country, costumed riders on horseback set out on their annual Courir du Mardi Gras, a town-to-town celebration. Hundreds of people registered for the event in Eunice, a bayou community 150 miles west of New Orleans, and rode on horseback or rode along in pickup trucks or on flatbed trailers.

"It's just heritage. It's Louisiana. We're crazy," said Courir participant Cody Granger, 24, wearing what looked like surgical scrubs decorated with the New Orleans Saints' logo.

While this year's Mardi Gras appeared successful, there were incidents of violence in New Orleans that marred the celebration. At least nine people were wounded by gunshots, six of them on Saturday. Shots were fired Tuesday near a parade route, but no one was injured and a suspect was quickly arrested, police said.