|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Are 'Hex Signs' Hex Signs?
| Article
# : |
19763 |
|
|
Section : |
CULTURE
|
| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1991 |
3,269 Words |
| Author
: |
Don Yoder
Don Yoder is professor of folklife studies and American
civilization at the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia. He is cofounder and former editor of
Pennsylvania Folklife, America's first folklife journal. He
is the author and editor of numerous articles and books, his
latest being Discovering American Folklife: Studies in Ethnic,
Religious, and Regional Culture (UMI Research Press, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, 1989); and The Picture Bible of Ludwig Denig:
A Pennsylvania German Emblem Book (Hudson Hills Press, New
York, 1990). |
Throughout southeastern, and in parts of central and southwestern, Pennsylvania--in areas settled by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the eighteenth century--the traveler sees on the facades of the massive barns large, showy stars and other geometrical designs. The problem of what these symbols really mean has occupied the scholars and publicists of the Pennsylvania Dutch culture throughout the twentieth century.
The star designs start with simple four-point stars and continue through five, six, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty, and even forty points. Of these, the five- and six-point stars are the most common. Another design is the swastika--not the straight-armed swastika of the Nazis, but the rounded, whirling swastika, used as a universal symbol in European and American folk art long before the Third Reich perverted the design.
These designs are known nationwide by the term hex signs. In the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, the word hex means witch, and the term hex sign was coined in the twentieth century by someone in Pennsylvania who evidently believed that the stars were painted on the barns to ward off witchcraft from the building and its contents. Since they are known everywhere as hex signs, even scholars who disagree with the common meaning, including myself, use the term.
Whatever the truth of this theory, it proved to be an extremely persistent idea. It is still very much in evidence in literature, particularly in brochures and propaganda directed at the tourists.
The flowering of barn decoration
The one thing that all early European and American travelers who jaunted through the Pennsylvania Dutch Country before the Civil War agreed on was that the barns erected by the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers were magnificent, memorable structures. One traveler wrote that the Dutch barns were like palaces, while the Dutch houses were like huts. This was not quite true, because once an immigrant family got on its feet financially--usually in the second or third generation--the son or grandson of the eighteenth-century immigrant replaced his log house with a well-built stone dwelling. These were large and comfortable but moderate in size when compared to the huge barns, which were sometimes ninety or more feet in length and two or three stories high. It is no wonder that some nineteenth century tourists referred to them as cathedral-like structures.
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
