Finnish Saunas: Tradition, Survival, and Connection
On the Gulf of Finland is Löyly Helsinki, a modern restaurant and sauna spa that invites its guests to enjoy traditional Finnish cuisine, sit on the benches of a smoke sauna or the traditional wood-burning sauna, and to plunge into the frigid waters of the Baltic Sea in between sauna sessions. Löyly Helsinki is a tourist attraction offering Finnish cultural experiences with very little required of its guests outside of following a few rules and spending a few dollars. It’s a simple idea: seafood, saunas, and ocean cold plunges. And yet within these 3 things exists much of what it means to be Finnish.
Finland is home to around 5.5 million people and approximately 3 million saunas. It is understood as common knowledge that, "Wherever in Finland one stumbles upon a human dwelling, one discovers some distance from the house, by a river or by a lake, a small log structure, the sauna" (“The Finnish Sauna: A Cultural Index to Settlement”). In Finnish, the sauna is called the “steam bathhouse.” It is a separate structure from your home and is positioned near water. This design and layout has been consistent in Finland since the 17th century.
Living in an extreme cold weather climate necessitates the invention of warming yourself beyond huddling next to a fire for half of the year. So it is easy to see why in Finland, and the surrounding Scandinavian and Baltic countries, where the average temperatures range from -4 F to 70 F, saunas are ubiquitous within the region. It’s about survival. But it’s also about quality of life. When something becomes central to your quality of life (taking naps, walking your dog, exercising regularly, eating healthy, taking a sabbath), it becomes a deeply embedded part of who you are and how you attempt to navigate your life in a world full of obstacles.
For example, Estonians believed in the value of saunas so much that they insisted invading German soldiers during World War II join them as a form of diplomacy and peacemaking:
“German troops encountered the sauna in 1941 when they advanced into Estonia and the Soviet Union, and the sauna was recommended to German troops and settlers, especially after a battle or heavy work, as being good both spiritually and physically. The German-Finnish "weapon-comradeship" requires that the term sauna be adopted into the German language. Military regulations in Finland in the 193O's and 194O's made it mandatory for Finnish soldiers to take at least one sauna per week. Some writers credit the brave, calm, determined "sisu" of Finnish character to the sauna. One writer maintained that the sauna is the ‘most beloved refreshment of the Finn, his dearest evening delight, and his most important remedy in sickness.’ Another opinion on the Finnish bath is that ‘a sauna offers peace and quiet away from the trouble of the farm.’ Be that as it may, it is significant to note that in 1937, about 80 per cent of the farms in Finland had their own sauna” (“The Finnish Sauna: A Cultural Index to Settlement”).
Between 1870 and 1920, approximately 340,000 Finns migrated to the US. In fact, so many Finns settled in Minnesota that people in the surrounding areas began to refer to it as “Finnesota.” Their settlement in regions environmentally unfriendly to Mediterranean migrants, ideally suited Scandinavians, not to mention the land hidden under the ice and snow was quite cheap. Having staked claim to the coldest climates in the US, the Finns quickly built saunas alongside their farmhouses, hay barns, and tool sheds (Finns were known for constructing many buildings on their farmland). This “odd” building did not go unnoticed by local Minnesotans, Wisconsinites, or Michiganers. One could easily identify a Finnish settler by the presence of a sauna building near his home.
When people leave a place, they still carry its most important parts with them. It’s no wonder saunas made their way from Scandinavia to the US when you consider how important it is to them. This is seen in the Kalevala, a series of Finnish folk epics, that recount the perseverance of the Finnish people. Within its pages are many references to the sauna; in one place it is noted that the ‘"sauna, or bath-house, is always a separate building; and there Finnish people take extremely hot baths almost every evening.’ Other portions of the Kalevala refer to the use of the sauna for malt making, as a place for childbirth, and as a means of driving away evil” (“The Finnish Sauna: A Cultural Index to Settlement”).
In 1970, Led Zeppelin released “Immigrant Song”, a song about Vikings conquering parts of Great Britain. The lyrics are:
“We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
On we sweep with threshing oar
Our only goal will be the western shore”
We are the “western shore” and lucky for us we do not have to deal with marauding Vikings, nor do we need to settle America’s frozen frontier, but we do have the chance to incorporate Scandinavia’s passion for sauna in our lives today. A custom built sauna and cold plunge with Hälsa Nordic Saunas will open up a world of hot and cold therapy that will put you in touch with a centuries old tradition of improving your quality of life physically, emotionally, and communally, not to mention “[drive] away evil.”
Otha Graham
Mather, Cotton, and Matti Kaups. “The Finnish Sauna: A Cultural Index to Settlement.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 53, no. 4, Dec. 1963, pp. 494–504. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1963.tb00462.x.
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