It is claimed that in the Middle Ages, churches that were too poor to display the relics of martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead. Some Christians continue to observe this custom at Halloween today. Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been a Christianization of an earlier pagan custom. While souling, Christians would carry with them "lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips". It has been suggested that the carved jack-o'-lantern, a popular symbol of Halloween, originally represented the souls of the dead. On Halloween, in medieval Europe, fires served a dual purpose, being lit to guide returning souls to the homes of their families, as well as to deflect demons from haunting sincere Christian folk. Households in Austria, England and Ireland often had "candles burning in every room to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes". These were known as "soul lights". Many Christians in mainland Europe, especially in France, believed "that once a year, on Hallowe'en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous carnival" known as the "danse macabre", which has often been depicted in church decoration. Christopher Allmand and Rosamond McKitterick write in "The New Cambridge Medieval History" that "Christians were moved by the sight of the Infant Jesus playing on his mother's knee; their hearts were touched by the Pietà; and patron saints reassured them by their presence. But, all the while, the "danse macabre" urged them not to forget the end of all earthly things." This "danse macabre" was enacted at village pageants and at court masques, with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of society", and may have been the origin of modern-day Halloween costume parties.