The Real Finnish Sauna. uralica.com /sauna2.html Finnish Sauna Culture - Page 2 Updated July 11, 2016 "Happiness is summer and a lakefront sauna" "Onnea on kesä ja rantasauna." This is what the Finns do with their beer barrels when they're empty - they turn them into saunas. Now you know why there are so many saunas in Finland. Actually this is a unique, innovative sauna design that resembles a beer barrel. 1/10 Savusauna Smoke sauna at Salmenranta resort The original Finnish Sauna was a smoke sauna. The fire was lit under stones in the sauna room, and the smoke went out a hole in the wall. When the room was hot and the fire was out, the hole was shut, the room was filled with fresh air and in an hour or so you could go in and have a great sauna. This was a truly bacteria free place and some say it is the best sauna. The Finnish Sauna The sauna is generally considered to be invented in Finland. But Finns don't want all the credit, just what is due. Who made the first sauna is not as important as who developed it to the high standards of the culture we see today. In Finland, almost every home has a sauna. At least no other country can claim that, not even the other 2/10 Scandinavian countries. There are at least three things, besides the language, that distinguish Finns from other Scandinavians: the sauna, Tango and sisu (a form of internal tenacity that Finns possess). Today, when one thinks of Finland, one of the first things that comes to mind is the sauna. If you have ever been to Finland or know some Finns, you might also think about the associated enjoyment of cooling off in a lake or maybe rolling in the snow. Nudity is part of the sauna tradition and has nothing to do with sex. Some people are offended by pictures of nude people in sauna books, because they think it is pornographic. It is simply showing the correct way to enjoy the sauna. The Finns used the sauna to combat the harsh realities of climate, for the enjoyment of the social tradition, and its physical, mental and even spiritual benefits. They even recommend it to prevent transmission of diseases such as Bird Flu. The modern sauna movement in the world originated in Finland during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics where the secret of the Finns' stamina was revealed. Both Russians and Swedes made attempts to highjack the credit for the sauna, but that honor belongs to the Finns, who are masters of sauna culture, having developed it to its present level, and are proper sauna fanatics. Is there English sushi, Russian Ouzo? Of course not. Neither is there a Swedish or even Russian sauna. The Swedes even go so far as to market saunas all over the world as "Finnish" saunas. And the term "Scandinavian" sauna has also popped up, propagated by those who want the world to think there is no such thing as a "Finnish" sauna, or that there is really no difference. Where else but Finland would you find over 1 million saunas in a country of 5.2 million people? The author spent some time in Sweden as a boy, in the country, and can assure you that there were no saunas at that time. When the author visits the family farm in Northern Finland, the wood heated sauna is one of the main attractions. Finns have a unique contact with nature, being one of the countries where most of the people lived in the country, and nature, until the middle of 1800's. To survive, the Finns had to use what they found in nature, then develop and refine it. This is their nature - a stubborn desire to do something really well. So it is no wonder that some of the best stoves, sauna and otherwise, come from Finland. Sauna is one of the important links to that nature, which is a very healthy thing, both physically, mentally and spiritually. To be disconnected from nature means you will eventually join the forces that destroy it. This is why Finns still today maintain this contact consciously and want to preserve their country as it always has been. So it is no surprise that a Finn is probably more comfortable in a sauna than in his own home. Sauna, as used by the Finns, has certain rules of conduct which everyone usually observes. Tom-foolery, shouting and swearing - every Finn knows should be left outside the sauna room. To the Finns, sauna has special meaning, a spiritual connection through the peace within a sauna and the natural world around them. The experience is perhaps very symbolic too: like a womb, and when you come out, you are as if reborn. In the old days you had to bow to even get into the sauna because the top of the door in a savusauna was lower than normal. This too was symbolic of the reverence of nature with which the Finns still approach the sauna ritual. And of course the sauna itself is a symbol for every Finn, a part of their identity. It reduces every person to the lowest common denominator when the worldly front represented by clothing is shed, which is very natural and pure. Like a spiritual experience, the sauna experience is something that cannot be described by words, but has to be experienced. But by using a little imagination, you can try. Imagine a beautiful lake, a forest, the elements, the universe - now you are getting close. Sauna Culture to Finns is the exact opposite of the way the sauna is used in some European/western countries where it has found its way back to the old central European immoral traditions. You see, in Europe there were all kinds of baths, some resembled saunas, but due to improper use, disease spread quickly and soon they became outlawed. These saunas are not saunas at all but breeding grounds for disease. 3/10 The sauna survived and developed in Finland because the Finns were people of the forest and nature, and never deviated from the proper way to use the sauna in daily life. This attitude is partly due to tradition and the Finns' historically healthy attitude toward the human body, which has acquired a taboo connotation in many countries. That is why the Finns even today are the keepers of the sauna culture - the right, clean way to sauna enjoyment. In times past, women and men bathed together, and you can still find places where the tradition continues but without the problems such conduct would elicit in other countries. In the old days, Finnish saunas did not have separate washrooms, and the inside dimensions were therefore larger. The major "improvement" in Finnish saunas came with the separate washroom, although many sauna purists dispute this. Another improvement was the heater. Early saunas were smoke saunas, that is they did not have a chimney. Here is an overview of heater development. The older sauna heater models were larger wood heated stoves that were fired up once and took a long time to reach full temperature. Even though we get steam from throwing water on the rocks, we can't call the sauna room a "steam room" because the actual relative humidity is quite low. Also, the purpose of throwing water on the rocks is not to create a steam environment within the sauna; it is for the enjoyment of its transitory effects which result in longer lasting feeling of well-being. Today, factory made constant heat (which means there is fire burning all the time) models are used because they take up less space and in many ways are handier than the old ones. A recent innovation in sauna heaters is of a type which stores heat in an insulated container that can be opened for "instant" sauna. (...just add water...) This might prove to be a good sauna heater for some applications. 4/10 Your best source for sauna heaters is from amazon.com a highly trusted site. Kastor Wood and Electric heaters (above) were made in Finland, but markets change and companies with them. The oldest sauna heater manufacturer, Kastor has been bought by the Swedish company Tylö From a construction point of view, many believe that a good sauna should be built with logs. Finnish manufacturers supply kits of prefabricated log saunas in either hand-hewn, planed, or turned logs which can easily be setup on a lake-front property. City saunas in America are often paneled in redwood or cedar and Finnish saunas are generally paneled in spruce, or knotless pine. Attention should be paid to the interior sauna dimensions, placement of benches and how high they are in relation to the floor and the kiuas, or stove. The upper surface of the stones should be lower than the benches. And by the way, the stones you use are of no small importance and should be replaced once in a while because they tend to lose their ability to store heat. Natural hard stones no less than 35 millimeters in diameter will do nicely. Some use broken stones, but hard river-bed or sea-shore stones are even better because they are more stable. The stones should be igneous, not sedimentary such as shale or sandstone. Replace the stones every year or two and definitely if there is evidence of crumbling. Finnish sauna stone supplier "best löyly" On a concrete floor, you should place non slip wooden gratings which can be easily lifted up for cleaning fairly regularly.