The doors of the Finnish sauna are open to the whole world today
“I see that today’s youth willingly adopt cultural traditions and are happy to share them with everyone,” reflects one of the participants who appeared in a video about the Finnish sauna, on the significance of the sauna for her family and for Finnish society as a whole. According to the portal This is Finland, the video was attached to the country’s application for UNESCO recognition of the Finnish sauna as an intangible cultural heritage. “We all have the fondest memories of the sauna, and we want our children to have the same,” she says.
“Here you can forget about the daily hustle and bustle and the problems of the day. You can simply enjoy the present moment,” says a smiling boy in the same video, after stepping out to cool off in the fresh air following the hot steam of the sauna.
Intangible value
Intangible cultural heritage is the traditions we inherit from previous generations and pass on to the future. It includes all the knowledge, skills, and experiences that have no physical form.
The Finnish sauna is more than just a bathing room with a steam bath. It is a set of rituals established over centuries: placing firewood in the stove and heating it, throwing water onto the hot stones, which produces hot steam or, in Finnish, löyly, and leisurely conversations about life with friends, family members, and guests sitting on the sauna benches. For some daredevils, the sauna is also a feeling of euphoria from the contrast of temperatures: you just plunge into ice-cold water after the sauna and then return to the heat and fervor of the sauna. All this and much more constitutes the intangible heritage of the Finnish sauna.
Sauna in everyday life
“The sauna is a huge part of the life of Finns, both on weekdays and holidays,” says Leena Marsio, Senior Advisor at the Finnish Heritage Agency, who participated in preparing the UNESCO application.
Many people in Finland consider the sauna an even more important part of life than might be imagined in other countries. “Finns sleep, drink, eat, and bathe in the sauna. Today, saunas can be found all over the world, but nowhere will you find people as obsessed with saunas as the Finns,” notes Marsio.
Depending on the source of statistics, 60 to 90 percent of Finns go to the sauna at least once a week. The ubiquitous presence of the sauna in the daily life of Finns can be judged by the huge number of saunas: there are 3.3 million saunas in Finland, with a population of 5.5 million.
More than a bathing procedure
Ritva Ohmeroluoma, a board member of the Finnish Sauna Society, also participated in preparing the application for the inclusion of the Finnish sauna in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. According to her, the sauna has meant more to Finns since ancient times than just a place to warm up and wash.
“Until the 1950s, Finns were born in the sauna because the sauna was the cleanest place in the house. The sauna can always be kept warm, and there is plenty of hot water at hand. In the sauna, we also washed the bodies of loved ones before sending them on their final journey. And we also dried meat in the sauna. My grandmother taught me how to make sahti – a barley beer drink – and we brewed it in the sauna.”
“When starting a family and building a house, the first thing they built was a sauna – the family could immediately live in it, cook food, wash, and it was warm. In addition, the sauna was built quickly. And only after building the sauna did they begin constructing the actual house,” says Ritva Ohmeroluoma.
According to recently published results of a 15-year study on the health effects of the sauna, led by cardiology professor Jari Laukkanen, those who go to the sauna frequently – four to seven times a week – have a more than 50% lower risk of stroke compared to those who go only once a week. It was also noted that the habit of going to the sauna also reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, because for the heart, visiting the sauna is equivalent to brisk walking.
Continuity of heritage
The best sauna, Finns say, is the one at your grandparents’ summer cottage. Your earliest memories of the sauna originate there, and it is there that your personal archetype of the sauna is created, by which you will measure and evaluate all other saunas throughout your life.
In my memory as an American of Finnish descent, I lovingly cherish memories of my grandmother’s sauna in Ilomantsi, North Karelia. I remember arriving there, tired after a long journey during which I traveled by plane, train, bus, and taxi. First, I gathered birch firewood prepared in the shed during the winter and carried it to the sauna. We lit the stove, which simultaneously heated a large boiler of water nearby.
Then we washed, scooping water from a small basin and pouring it over our soapy heads. The spacious sauna was illuminated by the flickering fire in the stove.
At home everywhere
I have already diagnosed myself with a condition called “sauna obsession.” Wherever I am, I always look for a sauna. Last summer, my family and I moved to the Croatian capital, Zagreb. On the premises of a spa adjacent to a public pool, I was lucky to find a real sauna: a wood-paneled room with wooden benches and a stove from the Finnish company Harvia, which specializes in sauna equipment. I was alone there, so I heated the stove to 100 degrees, and when the sauna warmed up, I kept throwing water on the stones until the rising steam, löyly, began to burn my back. It was pleasant to find an authentic piece of Finland in another country.
Perhaps this is where the key to understanding sauna culture in Finland lies. Once you have been to a Finnish sauna, every subsequent time you will return to your familiar space, comfortable for you physically and emotionally. Sometimes the sauna can take you back to your childhood, and even to the childhood of your parents, grandparents. The sauna can unfold before you a mosaic of other memories of Finland, its culture, nature, and people.
The doors of the sauna are always open for Finns and for the whole world as well. UNESCO has declared the Finnish sauna an invaluable cultural heritage, and this heritage lives and thrives.