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Image: Brazil Carnival

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Party's Over: Carnival Celebrations End With a Bang

Parades, costumes and revelry mark the Carnival season around the world

/ 22 PHOTOS
Image: New Orleans Lets The Good Times Roll At Mardi Gras Celebration

A reveler makes her way through the French Quarter on Feb. 9 in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras in French. 

Carnivals around the world came to a close on Tuesday, ahead of Ash Wednesday and the start of the Christian Lenten season. 

Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images
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Performers parade on the last day of Carnival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Many Haitians said they were staying away from the capital’s annual celebration this year out of security concerns.
Dieu Nalio Chery / AP
Image: COSO PARADE

Revelers participate in the Coso Parade, the grand finale of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnival on Spain's Canary Islands on Feb. 9.
RAMON DE LA ROCHA / EPA
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A man collects oranges during the traditional orange-throwing battle in the northern Piedmont town of Ivrea, Italy, on Feb. 9, 2016. The Carnival orange-throwing battle has its roots in the middle of the 19th century.
Luca Bruno / AP
Image: Traditional Lazarim Carnival

A man is dressed as a traditional \"careto\" during the Lazarim carnival in Lamego, Portugal, on Feb. 9. \"Caretos,\" young men who wear wooden masks and rattle belts to scare people on the streets (especially young girls), are a traditional element of Portugal's Carnival dating back to Celtic times.
OCTAVIO PASSOS / EPA
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A reveler wearing a sheep-fur costume stands in front of a bonfire where a coffin symbolizing winter is burned at the end of Carnival in Mohacs, Hungary, on Feb. 9.
Tamas Soki / MTI via AP
Image: SPAIN-FESTIVAL-CARNIVAL-INDIANOS

Revellers throw talcum powder during the street carnival \"Los Indianos\" in La Palma, on Spain's Canary Islands on Feb. 8.
DESIREE MARTIN / AFP - Getty Images
Image: Rio De Janeiro Celebrates During Carnival Season

Revelers pose during Carnival celebrations on Feb. 8 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Mario Tama / Getty Images
Image: BRAZIL-CARNIVAL-RIO-PARADE-GRANDE RIO

Members of the Grande Rio samba school perform during the first night of the Carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Feb. 8.

Photos: Brazil's Wild Carnival Parades Roll On

YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP - Getty Images
Image: Brazil Carnival

The 2016 Carnival King Momo, Wilson Dias da Costa Neto, holds the key of the city with Rio de Janeiro's Mayor Eduardo Paes, and the Carnival Queen Clara Paixao, at a ceremony marking the official start of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Feb. 5.

Leo Correa / AP
Image: Carnival in Lucerne

Disguised members of a carnival band participate in the carnival procession (Fasnacht) in the historic center of Lucerne, Switzerland, on Feb. 4.

ALEXANDRA WEY / EPA
Image: Carnival in Staufen

Staufen 'Schelme' (lit. pranksters) watch the traditional 'storming' of the town hall marking the beginning of the carnival season in Staufen, Germany, on Feb. 4. The main carnival season festivities will happen around Rose Monday on Feb. 4.

PATRICK SEEGER / EPA
Image: Uruguay Dancer

Dancers and drummers forming a group known as "comparsa", compete by playing and dancing to the rhythm of the traditional "candombe" music, in Montevideo, Uruguay on Feb. 4.

PABLO PORCIUNCULA / AFP - Getty Images
Image: Hungary Costume

Revelers wearing sheepfur costumes walk during the traditional carnival parade in Mohacs,, Hungary, on Feb. 4, 2016. The carnival parade of people, the 'busos', dressed in such costumes and frightening wooden masks, using various noisy wooden rattlers to drive away winter.

Tamas Soki / AP
Image: Germany Carnival

A female reveller celebrates in front of the cathedral during the start of the street carnival in Cologne, Germany, on Feb. 4.

Martin Meissner / AP
Image: Carnival in Lucerne

Revellers attend the 'Urknall' (Big Bang), which initiates at 5 o'clock in the morning for the carnival (Fasnacht) of Lucerne, Switzerland, on Feb. 4.

ALEXANDRA WEY / EPA
Image: Tschaeggaettae carnival in Switzerland

Some 'Tschaeggaettae', masked participants of the traditional carnival cortege, poses in the streets of the village of Blatten in the Loetschental valley, southwestern part of Switzerland, on Feb. 4. During this sinister carnival, about one hundred Tschaeggaettae with huge wooden masks and animal furs crowd the streets of the villages to scare the people in the Loetschental, a valley where this custom is still alive.

DOMINIC STEINMANN / EPA
Image: Bolivia Carnival

Indigenous musicians play "Tarkas", a native instrument, during the Anata Andina (Andean carnival) parade in Oruro, Bolivia,on Feb. 4. Hundreds of ethnic groups from Oruro province participated in the carnival.

DAVID MERCADO / Reuters
Image: Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago

Fareed Raffick, performs before the judges at the Traditional Mas Competition held during the annual Carnival celebrations, at Adam Smith Square, in the capital of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Feb. 4.

ANDREA DE SILVA / EPA
Image: Trinidad

Participant Roxanne Omalo is costumed at the finals of the senior King and Queen of Carnival Competition at Queen's Park Savannah in Port-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on Feb. 2.

Andrea De Silva / EPA
Image: Venice Bubbles

Artists blow bubbles in St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, on Jan. 31.

Luigi Costantini / AP
Image: Mona Lisa

Two carnival revellers masquerade as Leonardo da Vinci's painting 'Mona Lisa' pose in St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 31.

Domenico Stinellis / AP
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