MoonPies and Merry Widows: Mardi Gras hits Mobile, Alabama

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — 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. Joe Cain Day roared back to life Sunday (Feb. 27, 2022) after taking a year off because of the pandemic. Marchers tossed MoonPie treats, colorful beads, stuffed animals and plastic cups from floats, some of them homemade. Joe Cain Day is 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.