This Monday was Thanksgiving Monday in Canada. Thanksgiving is about turkey and all the fixings (trimmings in the UK), family reunions, home fires burning, crisp autumn nights and anticipation of Halloween and Christmas to come.

It is a national holiday a long weekend giving us time to travel to visit mother, father and grandparents.

Like our neighbours to the south who celebrate in November, it is a really important holiday in the annual calendar celebrating a good harvest.

We are thankful for good food, good health and loved ones. We take a moment to remember the good parts to our often high-anxiety lives.

We take time out to share the bounty.

This is in deep contrast to the outdated Mop Fair with closed roads, deafening sound systems, bright lights, the wafting smells of grease and carbon monoxide.

The Saturday market is abandoned very reluctantly, I imagine shop keepers worry about poor traffic and sales and a chill runs through the High Street. Only 12-year-old boys and girls are having a really good time!

I well understand tradition. This Mop Fair is no longer a tradition.

Tradition is harvest festivals,

celebrations with great home made food, good drink, good music and dance, and storytelling.

Perhaps it's time to revisit

autumn on the High Street. Move the Mop Fair to the Common.

Instead dust off and bring out trestle tables, cover with oil cloths, line up church chairs, dig out mother's recipes for turkey stuffing and apple crumble.

Start a Marlborough Thanksgiving.

Double the size of the market by including the Farmers' Market and be thankful for the really important things: love and friendship, peace and security, freedom and diversity.

D Davis

Marlborough