In Finland the traditional bathroom is called sauna. When we Finns led simple lives of hunting and gathering wild berries and mushrooms in the forests, there was no electricity nor running water, and the hard winters meant bathing was not an everyday activity. On the weekend every family would heat their sauna room using chopped wood. Then everybody would go in, sweat, throw water on the hot stones and scrub themselves sparkling clean for the coming week.
The traditional Finnish substitute of a washing cloth or sponge is a birch whisk, a certain kind of a bouquet made of fresh birch branches and tied together with the most tender sprigs. It is then left to soften in hot water while the sauna is being heated. While bathing, the birch whisk is used to gently whip the back, legs and arms of the bathers. Similar to a washing with a wash cloth in a Turkish hammam, this treatment promotes blood flow, removes dead skin cells cleansing the skin, and leaves the bather perfumed like a spring fairy.
During the winter, a dip in the almost-0-degree-lake is a common addition to the ritual. A hole is sawed to the ice of the frozen lake with a special ice saw, and a ladder is installed for the bathers to quickly go in and out of the cold water. This is an integral part of Finnish sauna culture: it promotes relaxation and is also found to have many health benefits.
Nowadays the option of electric sauna exists, but the tradition of a wood stove saunas is still going strong. While an electric sauna is what you will most often find in a detached family house and in the common areas of any apartment building, most big cities in Finland still harbour public sauna culture spanning from centuries ago.
Below, photos of public saunas. The first photo is from Savonranta, where the Ukkoteeri Sauna can be rented by groups or families who wish to spend their vacations in the nature enjoying a traditional wood stove sauna. The second and the third photo are from a famous public Rajaportin Sauna, located in the city of Tampere. As you can see, the sauna-goers come to cool off on the outside benches no matter what the weather. Sauna gives you superpowers that help to resist the cold of the Finnish winter!
Would you bath in a sauna and have a swim in a hole in the ice?
What other bathing traditions do you know of? One is mentioned in this article!
As 5th- and 6th-grade homework, find information about the health benefits and precautions related to bathing in a sauna. Make a list of at least five positive effects it has been found to have. Also list the most common contraindications (=reasons you should not bathe in a sauna).
As 4th-grade homework, write 4 sentences to define what is a sauna.
Weird Finnish Traditions 