Finnish SAUNA

Sauna has always been e sacred thing for Finnish people. When the new inhabitants moved to the new place they firstly build the sauna and lived there until the rest of the house was ready. Children were born in sauna. The dead relatives were washed in sauna. Families went to sauna altogether. Everybody was naked while in sauna. It is estimated that there are 2 million saunas in Finland! During the winter time, some Finnish people like to roll in the snow or take a swim in the freezing cold water after sauna! 

The first saunas were smoke saunas (savusauna). In those saunas there is no pipe for the smoke so the smoke stays inside. This is why the walls of those saunas are all dark. Warming sauna by using woods takes several hours but also conserves the heat much longer. Sauna is the place for the conciliation. People cannot argue in sauna. Still every Finnish family want to have the own sauna. Nowadays most of the saunas are heated by electricity. Even small town apartments might be having an own sauna.

Saturday is the traditional sauna day. People use whisk of birch twigs in sauna. Those are made during the midsummer celebration days. Those get dry during winter time. They are softening up with warm water in sauna. Then the person in sauna “beat up” oneself with those. Many Finnish males like this ritual very much.

People take the sauna turns several times. In between those turns people cool up in the chamber outside the sauna or during summer time on the porch. With going to sauna there are related other rituals as well. During summer time people after sauna take a swim and winter time some people go around on the snow or take a swim through the hole in the ice.

Finnish people have always believed in the healing power of sauna. There exist lots of proverbs about sauna for example  " Jos ei viina, terva tai sauna auta, tauti on kuolemaksi" and  "Sauna on köyhän miehen apteekki." which literally means:” if the not alcohol, tar and sauna help then the disease is deadly” and  ”sauna is the bar store of the poor people”