We were driving through rural parts of NY State last week, namely the area between Watertown and Potsdam and noticed a common sight was a large star hung on the sides of many houses. There were blue, silver and I believe red ones, sometimes more than one per house, but never two different colours on the same house. Is this strictly a local adornment, or is it, as I suspect to signify that there is a member of the residence serving in the military? What leads me to this is the proximity of Fort drum to where we were.
The house next door (suburbs) has a big rust colored one on their house. It looks nice, they’re sold in artsy-crafty type stores around here purely for ‘country’ decor, and every other catalog I get features them.
I have a large black star on the front of my white house. I purchased it in Smicksburg, PA from a store that sells Amish stuff. It is (in my case) simply decorative.
Suburban and rural New Jersey too. I always thought they were an offshoot of the American Flags that appeared on so many houses following 9/11, which grew into sort of a patriotic decoration. I don’t think I saw any of them before that date.
Not hex signs. The OP is talking about barn stars, which are Amish/PA Dutch but apparently have been co-opted by the Kitschy Ersatz Rural Decoration industry.
Barn stars are very common around here, in southern PA. They are mostly a rural tradition, and aren’t strictly Amish/PA Dutch. We have one on our house. It’s just for decoration. As Dewey Finn’s link says, they are supposed to bring you good luck, like hanging a horseshoe above your door.
First saw them in Dayton, Ohio, about four years ago. Like the OP, I thought they were a military thing (Dayton has a big Air Force base). And then, suddenly, they were everywhere. Within weeks my neighbor here in Massachusetts had one. I’m totally sick of them by now.
