I apologize for the not-great pic, but note the red barn at the top, with the words “vintage market.” Above it is a piece of art depicting geometric patterns. I’ve seen these on a lot of barns/farmhouses around here – indeed, there’s about a 15-25 mile stretch of road (around Caledonia, Missouri, USA if it matters) where just about every agricultural building has one, different on each building of course.
What do these mean?
They’re quilt patterns, and they mean someone wanted their barn to look pretty.
It’s literally called a “barn quilt.”
Originally hex signs to protect the farm and also used to guide passengers along the Underground Railroad, barn quilts have become popular. Some areas have established driving tours that take you along the scenic byways dotted with ag buildings decorated with barn quilts.
There all over the barns in our area. The area was settled by The Swiss.
Hex signs, like chela said.
They use to be Hex signs, these are something newer most commonly known as Barn Quilts.
Can’t get the OP’s image to load, so was literally going by the thumbnail, my apologies. Barn quilt is right. Looks like a relatively recent phenomenon, as folk art goes.
Maybe some folks have adopted them as that, but no, the origin really was just to look pretty. I suppose that you could use one to identify a specific known barn, as for instance one owned by an Underground Railroad conductor, but that was never their purpose, either (and they weren’t as common in pre-Civil War times, anyway).
The wiki talks about the origins of the word. The case for it being based on ‘Hex’ as German for ‘witch’ is pretty weak.
The Amish are on record saying those are just decorations.
They don’t use them in any case, so why is their word authoritative?
Aren’t the Amish part of the “Pennsylvania Dutch” family (Mennonites, Anabaptists etc.)? Am I misinformed?
From that same Wiki:
" The Amish do not use hex signs."
&
" Anabaptist sects (like the Amish and Mennonites) in the region have a negative view of hex signs, and they are rarely, if ever, seen on an Amish or Mennonite household or farm"
My reading of the whole article is that they originate with the non-Anabaptist German immigrants (the so-called Fancy Dutch). This tracks with how the Amish generally shun decoration anyway, like the buttons thing.