New Orleans ? Mardi Gras costumes were sparse but so were the crowds Tuesday as the parades and parties arrived earlier than usual because of a quirk in the calendar.

“This is the smallest I’ve seen it in at least the last 10 years,” Police Chief Eddie Compass said. “I think it’s the early date and the rain.”

The annual pre-Lent celebration, a combination of family party and Bacchanalian blowout, still resembled the same jubilant citywide spectacle it has been for over a century — it was just a bit easier to get around.

Along St. Charles Avenue, the normally jam-packed street had stretches of empty spaces when the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, the first of 11 parades Tuesday, made its way past.

The problem was partly that Fat Tuesday is the earliest this year it’s been in 15 years — so far from spring break that it kept much of the college crowd away.

And while Tuesday was cloudy but mild, with the temperature around 70, rain had fallen Monday, turning some spots muddy.

“It’s definitely off,” said Fallon Daunhauer, a bartender at Johnny White’s in the French Quarter for 21 years. “Too close to Christmas, not close enough to spring break to get the college kids in.”

Mardi Gras, which capped 11 days and more than 70 parades, kicked off with dozens of marching groups parading through the streets at dawn. Mayor Ray Nagin toasted the faux monarchs of each parade and turned rule of the city over to Rex, the king of Carnival.

A pair of hands attempts to catch a bag of beads during the Rex Parade on Tuesday in New Orleans.

Police close Mardi Gras every year with a sweep down Bourbon Street, followed by street sweepers and garbage trucks as Carnival officially ends and Lent, in this heavily Catholic city, begins.