Parade during COVID; Mobile officials preach ‘personal responsibility’ ahead of Mardi Gras event
Updated 10:23 AM;
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Makayla Pitts is a recent high school graduate who isn’t vaccinated against COVID-19 but is young enough where she probably would not suffer serious health consequences if she contracted the virus.
The 18-year-old who is graduating from B.C. Rain High School isn’t taking any chances, however. She’s not going to Friday’s Mardi Gras-style parade in downtown Mobile because she remains unvaccinated and because she anticipates most people there will not be wearing face coverings.
“COVID is still out there,” said Pitts, who says she needs to get vaccinated this summer before attending college in Atlanta this fall. “I am not vaccinated so I know to still wear my mask. But people are not wearing masks when they are supposed to.”
Mobile institution Callaghan’s closing for St. Patrick’s Day this year
Updated Feb 19, 2021;
Posted Feb 19, 2021
Callaghan s Irish Social Club, located in the Oakleigh Garden District in midtown Mobile, Ala., is the winner of a 2019 Garden & Gun magazine poll to determine the South s favorite bar.
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Callaghan’s Irish Social Club in Mobile will be fully closed on March 17 to discourage a St. Patrick’s Day crowd from gathering.
Callaghan’s is hardly the only Irish-themed pub in the area, or the only one with a tradition of hosting a blowout. But its longevity and the scope of its celebration, basically a block party within the Oakleigh Historic District, make it arguably the most prominent.
Mardi Gras 2021 in Mobile: A ‘downer,’ but few criminal complaints and flashier houses
Updated Feb 17, 2021;
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To illustrate the real story of Mardi Gras 2021, take a look at the police records.
A year ago, 290 vehicles were towed from downtown Mobile, an increase of 227 from the 2019 Carnival.
This year: Not one vehicle was removed requiring owners to fork over $150 to retrieve it from a special Mardi Gras impound.
In a typical Mardi Gras season, officers will respond to close to 500 complaints, and issue well over 400 tickets. During Fat Tuesday, the Mobile police department logged nine complaints, and no tickets were issued.
Hundreds honor man credited as modern Mardi Gras founder
“Happy Joe Cain Day we love it down here.”
Decades later and in the midst of a pandemic, that tradition is still very much alive!
“We miss Mardi Gras this year so we just wanted to have fun and enjoy what we could.”
In 2021 the celebration centered around Mobile’s Mardi Gras icon was not nearly a fraction of the tens of thousands of people drawn to downtown Mobile each year on Joe Cain Day, but the people have not forgotten how to party!
Between midtown and downtown, up to 1,500 people came out to celebrate.
‘It’s a sad, sad day’: Joe Cain Day traditions continue in Mobile during pandemic
Updated Feb 15, 2021;
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Mayim Bloom walked over with a bouquet of dead roses in her hand and dropped them on a grave marker festooned with Mardi Gras beads and coins Sunday morning.
She might not be one of Cain’s “Merry Widows,” but the 4-year-old did her part to keep the spirit of Joe Cain alive during the traditional day that honors the late Confederate solider. Cain, more than 150 years ago, is credited with reviving Mardi Gras in Mobile following the Civil War and he has been celebrated on the Sunday before Fat Tuesday since the late 1960s.