The cornerstone of unity

91 SAUNA

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Finnish sauna is the hottest place in the world people stay voluntarily. There are over three million saunas in 
Finland 
– enough to accommodate every Finn, even if they all wanted to go at the same time! Although the 
Finnish sauna was originally a rural phenomenon, the tradition spread to the city long ago, initially in the form of 
public saunas and then as private installations in urban dwellings. Nowadays saunas are even built into tiny one-
room apartments. 
Throughout the world, Finland is known more for its sauna than anything else. The word itself is known in 
over a hundred foreign languages, more than any other Finnish word. Even though Finns did not actually invent 
the sauna, their attitude towards it has always been unique. Sauna has been considered a sacred place, a 
source of many myths and folk beliefs, and a certain devotional attitude towards it has survived right up until the 
present day 
– a wellknown proverb says that one should behave in the sauna as if one is in church. 
Sauna is present in every area of Finnish culture, in both science and art; there have been close to 20 
doctoral theses and hundreds of other publications on the physiological and medical effects of sauna while, 
apart from being a subject for music and visual art, it is mentioned dozens of times in the Finnish national epic 
Kalevala, and practically every important Finnish writer has described bathing in the sauna. A really popular 
television talkshow, in which the two male hosts invited famous people to take a sauna with them, ran for years, 
and dozens of government ministers and members of parliament, including the current Finnsh president Sauli 
Niinistö and his predecessor Tarja Halonen, participated in the programme, generally wrapped only in a towel. 
Even though a typical rural sauna looks very different from mass-produced and corporate versions, the 
procedure itself has remained unchanged for centuries. It is based on alternating hot and cool: one first spends 
10 or 15 minutes in the steam room, which is 
heated to 80 or 100°C by a stove. The steam or “löyly” is created 
by throwing water on the hot stones which fill the stove. Humidity increases feeling hot. Bathers may also beat 
themselves with a bunch of leafy birch twigs. One then cools down by sitting outside, taking a shower, swimming, 
or rolling in the snow. This cycle of hot and cool is normally repeated two or three times, but can go on for as 
long as desired, and the bather finishes off with a wash. 
On average, Finns are introduced to the sauna when they are around 20 weeks old, and they will take a 
sauna every ten days or so for as long as they are physically capable. In bygone times the sauna was an 
essential part of many events in Finnish people’s lives: giving birth, cooking, making clothes, taking care of the 
sick and preparing the deceased for their final journey. Nowadays, however, Finns take a sauna primarily to 
relax. Ex-president Urho Kekkonen 
– a great friend of the sauna – crystallised the feelings of many Finns when 
he said: “In the sauna I relax physically and invigorate mentally. The calm atmosphere creates harmony. For me, 
life without a sauna would be completely impossible.” 
Lasse Viinikka 
– Honorary President of the Finnish Sauna Society