Sophocles once said that to someone who is afraid, everything is a noise. And well, that couldn’t be more fitting right now, could it?

Exactly a year ago, we were talking about this rather peculiar time of year. That great celebration was approaching once again, when the veil separating the living from the dead becomes so thin it almost seems possible to step right through it.

It’s the season of frights, trick-or-treating, dressing up, getting scared on purpose, and telling stories about werewolves, ghosts, and gentlemen with the rather disturbing habit of chasing people around with a knife or a razor-sharp claw.

What can we say? Human beings enjoy being frightened. At least a little. That’s why we invented fairground rides that, since the early 20th century, have travelled from town to town, inviting us to climb into little cars and journey through dark places filled with terrifying surprises.

Every country has its own attractions. Where we come from, we have a variation of the traditional ghost train called El tren de la bruja (The Witch’s Train), where — yes, you guessed it — a witch chases you around, trying to whack you with her broom as you travel along the track in a little car. Who on earth enjoys being chased by someone wielding a broom? Quite a lot of people, apparently.

The fascinating thing is that, although technology has evolved enormously, the emotional mechanism remains exactly the same as it was over a century ago: we know we’re going to be fooled, yet we happily pay for the privilege.

Perhaps that’s precisely where the fun lies. Knowing that when the lights come back on, the monsters will turn back into ordinary people, the ghosts into nothing more than bedsheets, and the murderers into gentlemen carrying rubber weapons. Because there’s a world of difference between being scared and having a reason to be afraid.

So, wherever you are, we hope you make the most of this month of scares. And if you’d like to tell us about any traditional fairground attractions from your part of the world, we’d love to hear from you.

And, of course, until we meet again on these pages, be happy.