Inscribed on the ‘UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists’ in December 2020, the Finnish sauna is a substantial part of the Finnish culture, so much so that the ‘Finnish Heritage Agency’ commits to its safeguard. The word sauna itself is of Finnish origin (‘saun’ in Estonian, ‘bastu’ in Swedish). The earliest versions of sauna in Finland are believed to be from 7000 BC, and during the Reformation in Scandinavia the popularity of saunas expanded to other countries because the European bath houses were being destroyed. The sauna culture has always flourished in Finland because of its versatility: Finns have used the sauna to live in, eat, address matters of hygiene, and give birth in an almost sterile environment. When people were moving, the first thing they did was to build a sauna, and the availability of wood needed to build and warm the sauna has never been an issue. Also, in such a cold climate, the sauna allows people warmth for at least a short period of time. The traditional sauna day is Saturday, and those who have the opportunity usually take a sauna at least once a week. Saunas, even in the military, are strictly egalitarian places: no titles or hierarchies are used in the sauna.
The basic components of a Finnish sauna room are quite simple: the space is heated using a sauna stove that contains sauna rocks. Sauna benches are built to elevate sauna goers closer to the ceiling where the heat and steam reache them quickly, and a window is the preferred source of light. Taking a sauna begins with a shower, followed by a sit in the sauna room typically warmed to 80–110 °C. Water is thrown on the hot stones topping the ‘kiuas’, a special stove used to warm up the sauna, producing great amounts of wet steam (‘löyly’), increasing the moisture and the apparent temperature within the sauna. Occasionally a ‘vihta’ (‘vasta’ in Eastern Finland) a bunch of leafy, fragrant silver birch, is used to gently beat oneself to relax the muscles.
When the heat begins to feel uncomfortable it is customary to jump into a lake, sea, or a swimming pool, or to have a shower: in winter, rolling in the snow or even swimming in a hole cut in lake ice (‘avanto’), is sometimes practiced. After cooling down from the first bath, one goes back into the hot room and begins the cycle again: the number and duration of hot room-cooling down cycles varies from person to person, but usually one takes at least two or three cycles, lasting between 30 minutes to two hours. In Finland’s summer cottages, during summer nights with virtually no darkness, bathing might go on well into the night. The sauna session is then finished off with a thorough wash and, after the sauna, it is often a custom to sit down (in the dressing room or on the porch) to enjoy a sausage, along with beer or soft drinks. In a private context, the sauna is usually warmed to honor the guest; however, Finns will not typically be very offended if their guest declines, in particular if going to sauna would require a lot of effort from the guest. Mixed saunas with non-family members are most common with younger adults and are quite rare for older people or on more formal occasions: it is common for teenagers to stop going to sauna with their parents at some point. In the sauna it is a faux pas to wear clothing in the hot room, although it is acceptable to sit on a small towel (‘pefletti’), that can be mandatory in a public sauna.
While cooling off, it is common to wrap a towel around the body, but beware: for a typical Finn the sauna is a strictly non-sexual place, and nudity in the sauna is without any sexual connotation. In public saunas, swimsuits are banned from the hot room for health reasons, as in many indoor swimming pools chlorine is added to the water for hygiene reasons and if swimwear is then brought to the hot room, the chlorine will vaporize and cause breathing problems for people with asthma or allergies. Saunas can be classified either by the sauna building itself or by what kind of stove it uses: the main division is between ‘once warmed’ and ‘continuously warmed’ stoves. Once warmed stoves have a larger number of stones that are warmed up before the bathing: this can be done by burning wood (with or without a chimney), oil, wood pellets, or natural gas. Continuously warmed stoves have a lower number of stones that are heated during the bathing: the warming can be done by burning wood, oil or natural gas, or electrically. The temperature in Finnish saunas is 80 to 110 °C (usually 80–90 °C), clearly above the dew point, so that visible condensation of steam does not occur as in a Turkish sauna.
Types of sauna
The smoke saunas (‘savusauna’) are all ‘once warmed’ and do not have a chimney: as wood is burned, smoke fills the room, and when the sauna reaches the appropriate temperature, the fire is extinguished, and the room is ventilated. Although smoke saunas are considered a more traditional type, there has been a significant increase in construction in recent years; however, due to the amount of effort and time required to operate them, they are not likely to replace most regular saunas. Smoke saunas are considered cheap, simple to build, and durable (their longevity is warranted by the disinfectant features of smoke).
The wood stove sauna is more common in rural areas: the metal stove with stones on top (‘kiuas’) is heated with birch wood fire, heating the sauna room to the required temperature. Any wood would do, but well dried birch wood is preferred because of its good quality, smell, and long-lasting burn. The important thing is to have a good ‘löyly’, that is when the stones are hot enough to evaporate the water thrown on them into steam that rises to the bathers.
In urban areas (city apartments, public saunas…) the electric sauna stove (‘kiuas’) is more common, as it does not require open fire and offers additional features like time delay settings, thermostat, temperature limiter, lighting, ventilation, remote/wireless control. Also, electric saunas usually have ‘kiuas’ stones piled over or around the heating element to allow ‘löyly’ be thrown onto them, either as an open, air circulating set-up or as a closed and insulated heat-storing one.
People might prefer the more atmospheric wood stove sauna over an electric sauna, but for those living in urban apartment blocks that is rarely an option, and electric stoves are also easier to use, more fire-safe, and do not produce wood litter. Saunas have also been built into cars, buses, car trailers, tractor trailers or even bicycles and boats; scouts and various other youth organizations often have portable tent saunas. In Finland, there are companies that rent mobile saunas, and an annual mobile sauna event is held in Teuva.
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