Finnish sauna - what a bliss!

Hello,

In Finland there are 3.3 million saunas. The most in the world in fact. The Finnish sauna is an institution just like having coffee. These two items somehow weave our Finnish feelings, togetherness, well being : the Finnishness. I have never come across anybody in Finland who has not got a sauna or experienced it.
Your sauna  can be in your garden, in a basement, built inside your house or it can be a communal sauna for a block of flats, gym sauna, office sauna etc. There are hundreds of thousands summer cottage saunas which are used sometimes all year not just during summertime. In Helsinki there are still old communal saunas which have been used tens of years with loyal customers of all ages.

In 50's and  60's  Saturday was the sauna day. It could take hours to  heat a wood  burning stoves and  hot  water. The electric stoves were marketed  from  the  40's onwards and it made sauna heating faster and more convenient. 

Sometimes the men had sauna first, then the women and the children. It is quite common that the whole family has sauna together. I remember my first childhood sauna was black inside, had a sweet smell of soap and smoke, it was truly hot and my hair was always squeaky clean after a good rub. That sauna was in our garden and in the winter you ran fast to the house through a snowy path. My next sauna was a more modern one: a part of a multi-purpose building and still very nice but the not so atmospheric as the old one.

http://www.helsinki.fi/kemia/opettaja/aineistot/saippua/saippuan_historia.htm

During the sauna session you were supposed to behave quietly, no swearing, shouting or loud noises were allowed. It is a spiritual occasion: time for yourself to relax and concentrate on your wellbeing: both body and mind. Never mind the sweating.

In historical times sauna buildings were used for different purposes like smoking meat and sausages, babies were born in them and the dead members of family were washed and dressed there. Naturally it all happened as saunas were clean places in households.

The Finns have been very clean people since 1700s due to sauna, lots of water has been used as well as healthy steaming. We  did  not need to cover bad odour with perfumes or powders then and certainly not now.

Nowadays you can have sauna just pressing a button to relax and refresh yourself. There are after-jogging saunas in many blocks of flats as well as after skiing/cycling/swimming etc.
saunas. Sometimes separately for men and women.

Many sauna owners have installed Jacuzzis in their homes to enjoy sauna moments even more. But you can have a cupboard sauna for one or two persons if you are short of space.

During summer you can jump in a lake, in winter you can go through a hole in the ice or roll in snow and go back to sauna heat over and over again.

BLISS! And have that glass of cold  beer afterwards.

http://www.finland.or.kr/public/default.aspx?contentid=136667&nodeid=35145&contentlan=1&culture=fi-FI

http://www.sauna.fi/in-english/the-finnish-sauna-society/welcome/





http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauna