Fat Tuesday celebrations round out the Carnival season

Thousands of people crowded the streets of New Orleans on Tuesday to commemorate the end of the Carnival season. Fat Tuesday — which fell on Feb. 28 this year — marks the final day of the celebratory season before the more somber period of Lent begins the following day, known as Ash Wednesday.

The Carnival season kicked off Jan. 6. Typically, more than one billion sets of beads and more than 500,000 king cakes are sold during the festivities in New Orleans, the hub of Mardi Gras celebrations in the U.S., Fox News reported.

There will be multiple parades in the city Tuesday, as well as in other cities across the nation. Both the New Orleans Pelicans and the New Orleans Saints were pictured participating in Tuesday's revelry:

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As soon as the clock strikes midnight in New Orleans, police on horseback will clear partiers from Bourbon Street and nearly 650 workers will begin cleaning up the city after weeks of celebrations.