Upon taking a barn quilt class at Rocori Senior Center in Cold Spring this fall, I became interested in the history of these decorative squares of wood on buildings that is gaining popularity in ...

Perhaps nothing symbolizes Pennsylvania Dutch culture more than the hex sign. Some believe hex signs were first added to barns as a kind of painted prayer, usually for blessings and as protection from ...

Tourist beliefs notwithstanding, a German folklore professor has found that the hex sign is a tradition of mainstream Pennsylvania Germans – not “plain groups” such as Mennonites – and appears ...

I wanted to see distelfinks. But they were hard to find. In Pennsylvania Dutch country, the distelfink — an imaginary goldfinch that eats thistle seeds and builds thistledown nests — is a good-luck ...

His fortune is in painting hex sign art, not necessarily in believing in any supernatural powers that may be attributed to them. Johnny Claypoole of Lenhartsville R.1, hex sign artist, commenting on ...

If you're lucky enough to have visited some parts of Pennsylvania Dutch country, you'll be familiar with what historians call "hex signs." These are large, often colorful, usually geometrical, and ...

LLENTOWN, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Dutch influence on the state’s Lehigh Valley shines through in any number of ways: the food, the festivals, the language. • A part of the culture’s very soul, however, ...

A live hex sign painting was a new addition to this year’s Kutztown Folk Festival. Standing on a ladder 12 feet in the air, hex sign painter Patrick Donmoyer, Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage ...