Cain’s Merry Widows

Cain's Merry Widows toss beads and black roses to revelers as they grieve at Joe Cain's grave in the Church Street Graveyard in Mobile, Ala., Feb. 15, 2010. The ritual was followed by a short ceremony at his home on Augusta Street in Oakleigh Garden District. The identities of Cain's Merry Widows, who represent the twenty fictional widows of Joe Cain, one of Mobile's earliest patrons of the Mardi Gras tradition, are kept secret.