How Finns go to the bathhouse. Finnish sauna and Russian bath: comparable? To the bathhouse - for important contracts

During 4 days in Finland we saw as many saunas as we have probably never seen in our lives. Even hotel rooms had small saunas along with a bath and shower, let alone hotel cottages.

Finnish sauna- this is a dry heat sauna, when the air in the room has low humidity (10-25%) and a high temperature in the range of 90-110 ° C. Finns visit the sauna every other day and this is in the order of things. The popularity of Finnish saunas has reached us, however, we only copied the form, forgetting about the content. Today I want to explain the main rules and explain why Natasha in the title photo is steaming incorrectly...

First, a few examples of saunas. Here is a roomy hotel option for general use:

2.

Compact option for a family:

3.

Today, black saunas are wildly popular among Finns. This is something similar to a Russian bathhouse:

4.

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Shared sauna in the hotel. Usually people who go to the sauna are either purely male or purely women's groups. Although, according to hotel employees, often friendly groups steam together:

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Private sauna in the cottage:

7.

Private saunas usually have outdoor Jacuzzis. Unlike the Russian tradition of throwing yourself into an ice hole, the Finns prefer a lukewarm bath:

8.

So, important rule Finnish sauna: under no circumstances should you enter the sauna wearing dressing gowns, a swimsuit or a towel. Under no circumstances. For Finns, this is bad manners, rudeness and violation of traditional values:

9.

The only thing that is allowed is to take a special piece of paper to put under your butt:

10.

This is what a person should look like in a Finnish sauna!

It is also important to sit with your feet on a bench (ideally lying down) so that the body heats up evenly. Before visiting the steam room, you can wash yourself lightly in the shower, but be sure to wipe yourself dry. You cannot splash water on the heater. If it is very dry, you can carefully water the wooden walls of the steam room:

11.

How do you feel about the sauna? Do you like to steam?

P.S. I would like to announce a new section in my author’s application “Traveldoll - Traveling in the footsteps of Sergei Dolya”. Now the program includes a guide to Crimea, compiled on the basis of my numerous travels around the peninsula.

Sauna: history
Finns don't like to borrow words from other languages. They prefer that the whole world learn Finnish, and have achieved some success in this: mankind already knows three Finnish words. Here they are: Nokia, Linux and, of course, sauna. The Finnish bath has won the love of all the inhabitants of the planet and undoubtedly deserves in-depth research. It might start something like this: “The sauna was first mentioned by the Kiev chronicler Nestor in 1113...” In fact, the history of the sauna goes back about two thousand years.

For Finns, the bath is not just a hygienic procedure, but part of the national culture, a ritual that cleanses the body and soul. An old Finnish proverb says: “First build a bathhouse, and then take on the house.” This is what they do today: for example, finding themselves on the hot Sinai Peninsula, the Finnish peacekeepers first built a sauna and only then began to actually do peacekeeping...

A modern resident of Finland cannot imagine life without going to the bathhouse and does it at least twice a week. Friends are invited to the sauna, business meetings are held there, family holidays, and in Lately- corporate parties.
There is hardly a house or cottage in the whole country that does not have a sauna. There are more of them in Suomi than passenger cars: for a population of five million there are one and a half million bathhouses!
Joining the prestigious Finnish Bath Society is quite difficult - some argue that becoming a member of parliament is much easier!

Sauna: theory
A classic sauna is a log house on the shore of a pond (so that, after steaming, you can throw yourself into cold water or just in a snowdrift). Today, a lake or river is replaced by a cool pool, but the rest... It would seem that what’s tricky here? However, the sauna hides many secrets.

First of all - wood. The steam room is built from coniferous wood, and only from the butt part: the walls of the sauna should emit a coniferous scent, and not ooze resin. Recently, Finns sometimes use alder, linden or some exotic species. But the traditional Finnish sauna is made of spruce and pine, which are good for toning and giving strength.

Then - shelves, benches, tubs and other things that the skin comes into contact with. All of them are made from deciduous trees, so they don’t get too hot in a hot steam room. (Note that such wood, unlike coniferous wood, promotes relaxation and relieves fatigue.) They are smoothly planed and pleasant to the touch.
And finally, about the stove-stove. The heater, which is a pile of stones, was historically the first sauna hearth, but even now it can be seen in modern “black-style” baths. In bathhouses on the shores of reservoirs, the heater is heated with wood, and in city apartments they use electricity.

Sauna: geography
For those who come to Finland, the choice of saunas is truly limitless: there are saunas in hotels, sports, tourist and leisure centers.
Many people like the baths at the Serena water park, carved right into the rock.
And on the island of Lautasaari (in Helsinki) there is a “cult” bath complex, where many world celebrities have visited - from the presidents of great powers to rock musicians. (However, to get there, you need a recommendation from a member of the Finnish Bath Society with three years of experience in visiting a steam room!) There are both “black” and “white” steam rooms, with a wide range of temperatures.
Saunas are very popular in Vantaa, eight kilometers from Helsinki, on the shores of Lake Kuusijärvi. There are two of them – regular and “black”. They work all year round, so they are especially attractive to walruses.

In the small town of Heinola, sauna championships are held annually: participants compete to see who can sit longer in a steam room at a temperature of 110 degrees, calmly and without fidgeting, when water is poured onto the hot stones every 30 seconds to turn up the heat.
No matter what corner of Finland you come to, you will certainly be hinted that this is where they understand a lot about the sauna. There really are a lot of good saunas in Finland. To be convinced of this from your own experience, even a lifetime is not enough!

Sauna: questions and answers

What to stock up on for a trip to the sauna?
First of all, time: a bath is a serious matter, requiring at least 3-4 hours. Bring two towels with you: one to sit on and the other to dry off with. Serious steam room lovers will not forget the felt cap on their head. What else? The reader himself will be able to answer this difficult question if he visits any Finnish supermarket, where huge departments sell bath accessories. There are tubs, brushes and washcloths, thermometers, sheets and towels, special felt caps, massage devices and even bouquets of dried flowers with which the Finns like to decorate the walls of the sauna (for example, they do not throw away withered bouquets of roses, but dry them and hang them in bath).

In addition to all of the above, you will find hundreds of incomprehensible, at first glance, gizmos, the purpose of which is better to ask a bathhouse veteran.
Women will certainly pay attention to the lovely pyllyaluinen - towels on which they sit in the sauna: linen and woven, embroidered and with appliqués. Children make these towels at school during handicraft lessons.

What about swimming trunks or a swimsuit? Is it true that men and women wash together in a Finnish sauna?
This was once the case, but with the influx of foreigners the rules have changed. Now joint washing is allowed only in the family steam room or in one’s own company. Usually they take turns steaming, or on “men’s” and “women’s” days. And they do it, of course, naked.
The rules of good bath etiquette stipulate that when sitting on the steam room shelf, you should place a special towel. Any other behavior is considered impolite.

Is a sauna dry steam?
Not at all! There are few dry steam baths in Finland, and they are mainly intended for athletes and amateurs. In a regular sauna, steam is generated by throwing water from a special tub onto the heater with a ladle. Before this, a ritually polite question is often heard: “Should I give in some more?”

But what is a bathhouse without a broom? In Finland they are sold dry and even frozen, in vacuum packaging (to preserve the forest aroma). It is customary to cut branches for birch brooms in June, on a certain day and almost at a certain hour. There are brooms made of oak, eucalyptus, coniferous, as well as from mint and even rye straw.
You cannot use brooms in public saunas (apparently due to cleaning problems). It’s a different matter in a private bathhouse: here you can “whip” to your heart’s content, after first soaking a broom in hot water poured into a special tub.

The sauna is very hot, will there be any health problems?
Doctors believe that the bath improves health. The health of the steamer improves, and, in addition, the sauna has a beneficial effect on the entire body.
The usual temperature (from 90 to 100 °C) may seem extreme, to put it mildly. For children and the elderly, there are also “warm” baths, with a temperature of 50–60 °C. Beginners should not plunge into ice water or even a cool pool. For those who can’t wait to show off their prowess, I’ll quote a Finnish proverb: “It’s better to be a live pig than a dead walrus.”

You can only drink non-alcoholic drinks in the sauna. But after the bathhouse, why not have a sip of beer? Or, say, sakhti - a special type of beer prepared according to an old recipe.
For high blood pressure, respiratory diseases and vascular spasms, a sauna is even recommended. But during an exacerbation of diseases, it is better to postpone the joys of bathing.
In a word, feel free to go to the bathhouse! And then try to find words to express your delight...

Image caption There is a sauna society in Helsinki

The word "sauna" is the only Finnish word that has penetrated into modern English language. In the English-speaking world, many people associate the sauna with sex, but for Finns the situation is completely different.

In a dimly lit room with wood-covered walls, ceiling and floor, naked men sit silently and sweat profusely. One whips himself with a birch broom, while the other scoops up cold water with a special ladle and carefully pours it onto the hot stones in the corner.

A second later, a wave of hot steam engulfs you. Your pores open up and your body is covered in sweat from head to toe.

Finns have been sweating in saunas for thousands of years.

Each sauna has its own character - some steams are light, others are particularly dry. In Finnish this is called "loili" or sauna steam.

The sauna was always playing important role in the life of Finns. Women gave birth in bathhouses because it was the cleanest room in the house - in black-heated saunas, the walls are saturated with soot, which kills bacteria.

Saunas were also used for purification ceremonies before marriage, and the bodies of the dead were prepared for burial on bath benches.

Sauna is a pharmacy for a beggar

For many Finns, the sauna was and remains the most precious and sacred place in the house.

"The Finns say the sauna is a beggar's pharmacy," says Helsinki resident Pekka Niemi, 54, who spends three hours every day in the sauna.

Today the population of Finland is 5.3 million people. At the same time, there are 3.3 million saunas in the country, located in private homes, institutions, factories, sports centers, hotels and even in mines deep underground.

99% of Finns visit the sauna at least once a week, and much more often in the summer in the countryside. There, the whole life is focused on the bath ritual with plunging into the cold water of the neighboring lake.

“Children used to be taught to behave in the sauna as if they were in church,” says Jarmo Lehtola. He himself is an active member of the Finnish Sauna Society or "Saunaseura", which is dedicated to maintaining sauna traditions.

This private club, with 4,200 members, was founded in 1937. It is located on an island 15 minutes' drive from the center of Helsinki. The club building overlooks the Baltic Sea and is surrounded by a birch grove.

At the entrance there is a sign asking you to turn off your mobile phone.

"The sauna is a place for meditation. It helps you relax in modern world, in which there is no place for peace. The sauna is usually in semi-darkness, and the heat is such that it’s scary to open your mouth,” says Lehtola.

The club has its own rules. You are not allowed to eat or drink in the sauna, and if you want to talk, talking about work or religion is discouraged.

Club members can choose between an electric sauna, two wood-burning saunas and three black saunas.

Most Finns consider traditional black saunas the most enjoyable because their “loili” is the softest. This type of sauna is heated for five hours, and its walls are usually covered with black soot. The sauna shelves are always washed white, but experts never touch the walls unless they want to leave the sauna black.

Dress code in the sauna

Unlike saunas with wood-burning stoves, “black” saunas have an open fireplace without a chimney. The smoke is released through a small hole in the ceiling shortly before bathing begins. The smell of smoke remains in the sauna, but it is a pleasant aroma of the forest, it does not sting the eyes or cause coughing.

You are supposed to be naked in the sauna. Men and women use separate saunas, but families go to the sauna together.

Lehtola hastens to add that Finns do not in any way connect the two concepts - sauna and sex.

“It all started in Germany in the 70s, when they came up with the idea of ​​having sex in a sauna,” he says.

According to him, outside of Finland, saunas do not stand up to criticism, although he has visited many countries.

On the other hand, Lehtola doesn't even like public saunas in Helsinki. Two of them - Kotiharju and Arla - were opened in the 20s. They are located in the proletarian district of the capital - Kallio.

In those years, these saunas were used by workers who lived in houses without amenities. In fact, these saunas were clubs - you could relax, talk, and drink beer in them. And at the same time, wash yourself - there were bath attendants who could wash the visitor for a fee.

Now new inhabitants of this area - students, artists and enterprising tourists - come here to plunge into the atmosphere of those years.

In these saunas, people behave completely differently than in the dignified Saunaseur club. There is no trace of the famous Finnish restraint here. People are happy to talk in the most different topics with strangers, despite their naked appearance and terrible heat in steam rooms.

There are no conflicts in saunas

There used to be more than 100 of these public saunas in Helsinki, on almost every corner. But in the 50s of the last century, their number began to decline when people began to acquire own houses equipped with saunas.

However, not so long ago a new large sauna opened in the capital - Kuulttuurisauna or "Cultural Sauna" - the first in half a century.

Finns believe that, despite the fact that the temperature in the steam room can reach 160 degrees, the sauna often makes peace after quarrels and resolves conflicts.

The Finnish Parliament has its own sauna for MPs, where debates also take place, and all Finnish embassies and consulates abroad have their own saunas.

Former national president and laureate Nobel Prize world Martti Ahtisaari liked to arrange meetings with foreign politicians in the sauna, during which sensitive issues were discussed.

In the years cold war President Urho Kekkonen often received Soviet diplomats in the sauna of his official residence.

There are more saunas in Finland than cars. They are in every residential building, office, and government building. If for Russians going to the bathhouse is an event, then for Finns it is the same daily ritual as brushing your teeth or drinking coffee

“Russian bathhouse and Finnish sauna are the same thing,- Helena Autio-Meloni, cultural adviser at the Finnish Embassy in Moscow, debunks all the myths at once. - A dry Finnish sauna, as Russians imagine it, simply does not exist. When the first electric fireplaces appeared on the market in the seventies, they first displaced wood-burning stoves from saunas in Finland, and later began to be sold in Russia. The Russians were happy to buy them, but probably did not read the instructions or did not listen to the seller. After all, you can and should pour water on these electric stoves to create steam. What would a sauna be without loyly! So on Finnish The main thing in a sauna is called the steam that occurs when you splash water on hot stones. Humidity and high temperature - this is a real Finnish sauna!”

Artist and sauna enthusiast Sami Hyrskylahti also laughs at the Russian misconception: “You think that only you have a unique sauna with a steam room, beating with brooms, followed by diving into an ice hole or into the snow. The Finns believe that they invented this type of bathhouse. I’ve only seen a dry sauna once - in Sweden.”. The only difference between a Russian bath and a Finnish sauna, according to Sami, is that Finns do everything quickly in the bath, while Russians sit for hours: “In Finland, the sauna is a weekly, and for many, a daily ritual. In Russia, going to the bathhouse is perceived as a holiday. So the Russians steam for five hours straight. By the way, this is harmful. Hair may fall out".

Where does the homeland begin?

Finnish proverb says: “First build a sauna, and then a house”. According to the Finnish Sauna Association, there are 1.6 million saunas for the country's 5.5 million inhabitants. They are in every home, in office centers, government buildings, as well as in Finnish diplomatic missions. Even in military locations there is a sauna. For example, during the UN peacekeeping mission in Eritrea, the Finns relaxed in their own bathhouse. And in Kosovo, 20 saunas were built for 800 Finnish soldiers.

“This is a very old culture. Our people have a love for the sauna in their blood. It is passed down from father to mother,- explains tourism manager from Helsinki Liisa Renfors. - My first childhood memory: the whole family is in the sauna - mother, father and older brother and sister, I’m three years old, and my father washes my hair...”

Now Liisa lives in an ordinary apartment building in Helsinki. There are only two saunas per 100 residents of the house, located in the basement, so visiting times must be booked a year in advance. “I took time on Thursdays between 19:00 and 20:00.”, says Liisa. Such saunas are built in all residential buildings. They are called talosauna. There's one more thing popular name - Lenkkisauna, from the word lenkki(“jogging”). You can take a quick steam here after exercising. Many Finns do this.

Rite of purification

Juhani Raintinpää, director of a company that manufactures and installs windows and balcony doors, lives on the ninth floor of a 12-storey building in Lappeenranta. He did not book a sauna a year in advance. The bathhouse is heated there every day, with Tuesday being the general women's day and Wednesday being the men's day. Juhani is happy with his surroundings, but he gets real pleasure only in a bathhouse with a real wood-burning stove, in the forest, by the lake. “All family members - 10 people - gather at my sister’s dacha near Lake Makhnalanselka. My sister and I have been accustomed to this kind of vacation since childhood. When we were little and lived with our parents in Tampere, the whole family also went to the sauna. They rubbed each other's backs, and then went to kahvit - that's what the Finns call drinking coffee after the sauna. Children - juice, adults - coffee. And everyone was happy".

For decades, the sauna has been a place of not only physical, but also spiritual cleansing, liberation from vanity. “For us, a sauna is Holy place where sins are washed away. All the bad things go away, people take a steam bath in the form in which nature created them, so everyone is equal before God,- Juhani continues. - I believe that the sauna is the only truly democratic place in the world. A place to resolve world conflicts, which, by the way, is actively used by our politicians. The sauna has a good effect on the psyche. Especially if you combine it with swimming in the lake".

“In the bathhouse I feel a connection with nature, with the higher, spiritual,- says Juhani. - It’s customary for us to take children with us to the steam room. And these rascals sit calmly on the floor, don’t make noise or be capricious. They don’t need to be explained how to behave in the bathhouse. They feel with their souls".

Liisa Renfors believes that the main thing in a sauna is to concentrate and remain quiet. “The philosophy of the sauna is that everyone should feel good and calm there, like in a church. You have to do what you feel. Some people come to church for long services, while others will come in quietly, pray in the corner and leave. Same thing in the sauna. I sit in the steam room in silence for 10 minutes, relaxing after a busy day. And this is enough to be alone with yourself. And there are people who spend an hour in the bathhouse, steaming in several sessions".

To be born, to wash and to die

Until the beginning of the 20th century, most Finnish children were born in a sauna. Hot water, atmosphere of calm, absence of germs - ideal conditions. Finnish President Urho Kekkonen, who led the country from 1956 to 1981, was born in the bathhouse. “Our grandmothers gave birth in saunas - it was normal,- says Councilor Helena Autio-Meloni. - In the house that belonged to my mother-in-law, there is a bathhouse that was built in the 19th century. She saw a lot - not only childbirth, but also funerals. Before burial, the deceased was left in a cold sauna for three days and only then was seen off on his final journey.”.

These pagan traditions were preserved for quite a long time, because the Finns lived in isolation and it was a long way to get to the church. The tradition of preparing the bride in the sauna for the marriage ceremony has survived to this day. Before the wedding ceremony, the girl went to the sauna as if for confession, in order to wash away temptations and thoughts. past life. The pre-wedding bachelorette party almost always takes place in the bathhouse. In the northern regions of Finland, a trip to the sauna is performed to the accompaniment of a Lapland drum. Finnish shaman healers kansanparantja Those who collect herbs and know spells for all diseases consider the sauna to be the main remedy. It is no coincidence that there is a saying in Finland: “If alcohol, tar or a sauna do not help, then the disease cannot be cured”.

Photo: Kari Ylitalo / visitfinland.com, Harri Tarvainen / visitfinland.com, Axiom Photographic / Legion-Media, Visitfinland.com (x3), Shutterstoc

The Finns sincerely believe that they are the inventors of the sauna. This statement can be called an exaggeration, but there is still some truth in it, because it was the Finns who managed to turn bathing into a real art.

Finland - the Nordic country of bathhouses

If you count the number of inhabitants of Finland (there are at least 5.1 million people) and divide them by total baths, it turns out that there is one sauna for every three citizens of this country. And yet, contrary to popular belief, the authorship of such a phenomenon as a bathhouse does not belong to the Finns at all - since ancient times, people inhabiting the territory from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains loved to take a steam bath to their heart's content. This method of hygiene was popular among many peoples: Karelians, Estonians, Livs, Vepsians. The bathhouse was well known to the Slavs, Lithuanians and Latvians, as well as the Finno-Ugric and Turkic-Tatar peoples.

Traditionally, a sauna is a small wooden building in which steam is generated by using water applied to hot stones. The essence of visiting this place is to get a good sweat and take the necessary water treatments. The Finns even have special word, denoting both the spirit of the sauna and the steam from water thrown onto the hot stones - löülü.

Despite the fact that the Romans, Turks, Celts, Japanese, Indians, Russians and even Mexicans were big fans of hot steam, it was the Finns who managed to preserve the real bath tradition and perfectly adapt it to the conditions modern life. The Finnish sauna has long become a real brand, recognizable far beyond the borders of the country.

The first baths and the history of their origin

The word “sauna” itself is of Finnish-Sami origin. Initially, this structure was very simple - a pile of stones was placed in the center under a temporary canopy, which were heated to the required temperature. People gathered around them to take a steam bath. Eg, American Indians They built a special steam hut for this purpose. Historians suggest that the prototype of the sauna could have appeared at the dawn of civilization - about 6 thousand years ago, in the Stone Age.

It has been precisely proven that already in the 5th-8th centuries the first wooden log houses existed in Finland, which were used both as a sauna and as housing. They drowned there “black”, with the help of open fire and smoke. The very method of constructing this structure began to be used everywhere thanks to Finnish emigrants, who began to build a bathhouse from logs in any country.

What is a black sauna?

An ordinary pile of stones in the middle of a small structure was called a “black-style” bathhouse. This design was also suitable for heating a home, but it was difficult to cook food on it. Starting from the 11th century, they began to build a special chamber with something like a stove over the heater, so separate fireplaces appeared in the house - for a bathhouse and for living. Already in XVIII century in the western part of Finland they learned to build closed brick stoves, which were safer to use. Such stoves had a chimney and two separate nests - for steam and fire.

The main feature of the brick stove was the presence of a chimney that removed smoke from the room. In the 19th century, the Finns were already building brick heaters with chimneys that had a separate base. This approach to the construction of saunas made it possible to build them in any place - for example, in cities.

At the beginning of the 20th century, mass production of heater stoves enclosed in a metal casing began. The models were constantly improved, and new engineering developments were applied to them. In the 1930s, a completely innovative type of stove-stove with continuous heating was proposed. The firewood was placed in a separate chamber in such a way that the stones did not come into contact with either fire or smoke. This allowed for a long time keep the fire in the bathhouse and steam to your heart's content without worrying that the fire will go out.

Bathhouse in the city

Thanks to new models of stoves, the sauna has regained its former popularity. Urban residents began to take advantage of the new benefit of civilization, because until that time the bathhouse was more popular among the rural population of the country. The decline in the popularity of the sauna was facilitated by a significant improvement in the living conditions of the Finns, which occurred with late XIX centuries - then many houses had running water and baths, and visiting a bathhouse became associated with something rural and old-fashioned.

Public saunas, divided into female and male halves, began to appear in cities. If desired, each family had the opportunity to order a separate room in the steam room. In public saunas, visitors had access to the services of professional bathhouse attendants, massage therapists, and even bloodletters. Many lovers of steam baths became regulars at the baths and enjoyed the special favor of the establishment’s staff. The tradition of visiting public saunas lasted in Finland until the middle of the 20th century, after which it began to gradually fade away.

All this time technical progress did not stand still, and at some point ordinary heaters with chimneys were replaced by electric devices - the first such stove appeared in 1930, but rapid development V in this direction wars interfered. It was possible to develop industrial production of electric stoves in 1940.

The new stove was very light and safe; it could be turned on with one button, after which the stones quickly heated up and maintained the required temperature for a long time. The absence of a chimney significantly expanded the possibilities of installing such heaters - they could function in almost any place where, for some reason, it was impossible to build a bulky chimney. In addition, the electric stove made it possible not to worry about firewood, which greatly facilitated the process of its operation.

With the help of an electric heater, it was possible to solve the problem of the city bath once and for all - the Finns began to build multi-storey buildings, which included special sections for saunas. Many apartments have their own small saunas, and even some rooms in Finnish hotels have this feature. It is unlikely that something similar can be seen in another country.

Furnace of the bath and ancient customs associated with this process

The sauna has been a sacred place for every Finn since ancient times. Initially, this building was located right in the yard, but at the beginning of the 20th century, representatives high society introduced the fashion for building baths near bodies of water - mainly lakes. Visiting the sauna was mandatory once a week. Its kindling, which was done by the steamers in several shifts, usually took the whole day. This procedure was quite complex and required certain skills and knowledge - what kind of firewood is best to choose for kindling, how to properly arrange it in the stove, how to tie good brooms, etc. This skill was passed on from generation to generation.

The behavior of steamers in the sauna was regulated by numerous rules and customs. For example, in the bathhouse it was forbidden to talk loudly and swear; here you had to behave appropriately - like in church. Finnish ethnographers refute the idea that public saunas were common in the country. In fact, women and men visited the steam room separately; much later, family trips to the bathhouse became popular. In villages, it was customary for the owner of the house and workers to take a steam bath first, and after them, the hostess and her assistants went to the sauna.

Various stories related to the sauna and sauna traditions are quite common in Finnish literature. For example, in Alexis Kivi’s novel “Seven Brothers” there is such an episode: on Christmas, the brothers were enjoying steam and beer in a new bathhouse, and at that moment a fire broke out. The guys found themselves in the middle winter forest wearing only their shirts, and they had to run as fast as they could to the nearest house to avoid freezing.

The bathhouse was also actively used for various agricultural work - malt was dried there, sausages were smoked, flax was processed, laundry was washed and potatoes were sprouted. All this was accompanied by songs, stories, and various jokes. The bathhouse was also used for fortune telling and for some rituals.

The main reasons to love the sauna

Finns will never stop loving the sauna - the custom of taking a steam bath has been passed down for many centuries from generation to generation, everyone has long been accustomed to this and takes it for granted. The sauna not only gives cleanliness - it gives strength, calms, pacifies and improves health.

The main function of a sauna is to keep the body clean. Since ancient times, once a week, and sometimes more often, people washed off dirt from themselves in an ordinary bathhouse. Modern apartments have showers and baths, but the habit of visiting the sauna still remains. In addition, only in a steam room can you cleanse your skin well, as the steam helps open the pores.

And the bathhouse also means health. A well-known Finnish proverb says: “if neither resin, nor vodka, nor a bath helped, then the disease is fatal.” This does not mean at all that for medicinal purposes it is necessary to use all three remedies simultaneously. But a good steam room could really relieve fatigue, soothe aching muscles and joints, give you good health and give you strength.

The sauna was also searched peace of mind. This place helped to get rid of heavy thoughts, here they put their thoughts in order and found peace. Creative people after a good steam room, we found inspiration and felt a surge of strength. A visit to the sauna was beneficial for every person who needed to cleanse not only the body, but also the soul. Finns sometimes even hold meetings and important business meetings in the bathhouse, as the atmosphere of this place is relaxing and helps all negotiators to be in the most peaceful mood.

A visit to the bathhouse will definitely benefit people who are bogged down in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. In this beautiful place, time stops, and all worries and worries seem distant and insignificant. Your head is cleared of unnecessary thoughts and making the right decision becomes much easier. There is no need to rush anywhere after the bath. You should listen to your body, feel its strength, every muscle. Everything around you immediately makes sense and becomes clearer.