Finnish Sauna
Sauna is a bath in steam, in which the steam is produced by pouring water over the heated rocks. Saunas are most closely known with Finnish people. Typically a sauna is a wooden hut that contains the rows of flat stones is built near the lake’s edge. The extreme temperature changes have beneficial effect on the circulation.
The first structure that was built by Finnish immigrants when they settled on homesteads in United States was of sauna, not a house. For centuries, it had been the custom in Finland, also because sauna was great to get relaxed, warm, and clean.
Even in the mid of arctic winter, you can take off your clothes and open pores in a sauna. The antique sauna was something of a tough place as compared with the electric-heated saunas. A sauna would be easily dug into a hill or built of logs, just with a stone stove the smoke was made for circulation throughout the room. Fire would be ignited and water was poured on the hot rocks to raise the humidity in room.
With soot, as well as sweet-smelling, it was purportedly hygienic. Sweat and the vihta or vasta, a birch whisk, did cleansing, along with jumping in the lake or rolling in the snow after sitting in temperatures that approach 200 degrees Fahrenheit. There was no use of soap.
A sauna should be a sacred and relaxing place, there should be no sex. In Finnish sauna, men and women generally go to separate saunas. There are no newspapers or televisions. You cannot even raise your voice. According to Finnish, in sauna you must behave as in a church.
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Submitted by admin on Thu, 05/31/2007 - 05:40.