A general understanding of folk culture is needed in order to understand the concept of folk art. Folk culture is "traditional and conservative; it exhibits great variation in space and relatively little change over time."(Deetz 41) Folk art is the art of the common laborers of a folk culture who expressed themselves in an untrained manor.
The folk art of the Pennsylvania Germans was influenced by strong cultural trends. It shows the struggles and triumphs of its makers as they worked through the hardships that the New World offered while rying to hang on to the comfort that they knew in their motherland, Germany. (Kauffman 8) The most persistently appearing folk art design found in our radius was the six pointed star. It frequently appeared on both the barns and the gravestones.
This is a six-pointed star, also known as a rosette, which the Pennsylvania Germans frequently used in the decoration of their barns and gravestones. The six-pointed star symbol is one of many symbols called "hex symbols". Hex symbols were initially used as protective devices against evil spirits. Gradually these symbols developed meanings; the six-pointed star stands for good luck! The background on this page is also a graphic of a six-pointed star. It was taken from a picture of a gravestone with German text from 1807 out of the Emanuel United Church of Christ graveyard in Abbottstown Pennsylvania.
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