Apr 16, 2026 · 1 hr 18 min · 14 segments
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of That Pennsylvania Witch, I sit down with **Anna Urošević Applegate** to explore the threads of heritage, spirituality, and ancestral memory. We talk about her…
Anna Urošević ApplegateGuestKatelyn DawnHostThat dual faith tradition, I would call it that I was raised in because I had an ancestor altar.
That concept was something my parents introduced me to with the fundamental difference between From, let's say, what we did in my Catholic school, we would pray for the dead.
We're praying to them because there's an implicit understanding that they can pull strings on your behalf, even though they're not on this earthly plan anymore.
So I remember being profoundly affected when I was eight years old.
And my brother and I were kind of hovering in the background in the dining room.
And my parents had, it's a beautiful, I've inherited it, this beautiful antique credenza.
And my mother would adorn The tabletop of it with handmade altar cloth, tablecloth made by one of her sisters.
She was the middle of three sisters and she had a younger brother as well.
So let's say it was a holiday like Palm Sunday, which is actually passed for me this past Sunday, or Christmas.
Someone else in the family had made something and their death anniversary is coming up.
She would then take out the linen associated with that person, use that as the tabletop.
Of course, we always had framed photos of the dead, including animals.
And then on the death anniversary, say, of one of my mother's sisters, her oldest sister, my aunt Emma, who was a hard smoker, you know, a chain smoker her whole life.
Very rare that my parents were Yugoslavs who didn't smoke and they rarely drank.
That dual faith tradition, I would call it that I was raised in because I had an ancestor altar.
That concept was something my parents introduced me to with the fundamental difference between From, let's say, what we did in my Catholic school, we would pray for the dead.
We're praying to them because there's an implicit understanding that they can pull strings on your behalf, even though they're not on this earthly plan anymore.
So I remember being profoundly affected when I was eight years old.
And my brother and I were kind of hovering in the background in the dining room.
And my parents had, it's a beautiful, I've inherited it, this beautiful antique credenza.
And my mother would adorn The tabletop of it with handmade altar cloth, tablecloth made by one of her sisters.
She was the middle of three sisters and she had a younger brother as well.
So let's say it was a holiday like Palm Sunday, which is actually passed for me this past Sunday, or Christmas.
Someone else in the family had made something and their death anniversary is coming up.
She would then take out the linen associated with that person, use that as the tabletop.
Of course, we always had framed photos of the dead, including animals.
And then on the death anniversary, say, of one of my mother's sisters, her oldest sister, my aunt Emma, who was a hard smoker, you know, a chain smoker her whole life.
Very rare that my parents were Yugoslavs who didn't smoke and they rarely drank.
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