Vihta drying outside a sauna. Photo: kallerna via Wikimedia Commons.
Baring all for peace
Roger Babington Hill writes about a Finnish tradition and equality
Finland has such a close relationship with the sauna that the words are almost synonymous. For Finns, the sauna is seen as much a pathway to an uplifting social and spiritual experience as a physical one.
Finland is a large and prosperous country with a small population. It is one and a half times the size of the British Isles, but with only five million inhabitants, so the majority (even if they live in a town or city for work) usually have easy access to a place of their own, or of their extended family’s, in the country. This may be a modest wooden structure or a splendid multi-roomed house. It will often be in the forest and ideally near one of the country’s 190,000 lakes.
Strict etiquette
Finns still retain an intimacy with nature that has been largely lost, I believe, for the majority in Britain. Even town houses and flats will have a sauna, but it will necessarily be heated electrically, so seen as rather second-rate. The authentic wood-fired, smoke and steam-filled sauna will be a small building near the house in the country.
There is a strict etiquette about how a sauna is taken. Although clothes are never worn, there is no hint of sexual impropriety. It is common for members of one family to share a sauna across the generations, so that a young person may grow up feeling at ease with their own body, familiar with how the human body changes over time, and freed from the pressure to conform to some airbrushed ideal.
In the late summer, the family will make expeditions into the forest, which are open with free access to all across the country, to collect birch twigs while they are still in full leaf. These are tied together with string to form small bundles known as vihta, and left to dry.
The sauna is taken as often as possible, once a week is common, and at special occasions, such as at Christmas or before a wedding. The stove is lit in good time to generate the necessary heat of between seventy and 100 degrees centigrade, and a preliminary shower is taken before entering the steam room. The vihta will have been soaked in warm water to soften the twigs and leaves, which are used to gently stimulate the skin with a light beating, either by yourself on your own body – back, front, arms and legs – or by your wife, husband or partner for you. The tradition at New Year’s Eve is to beat away the sins of the outgoing year. I was more than a little put out by the length of time that my wife considered necessary to attempt to achieve this small task on me.
Finnish universities conduct research to evaluate the health benefits of the sauna. Due to the extreme heat and steam, sauna rooms are sterile so traditionally they were used to give birth and for the laying out of bodies. Used sensibly, saunas can benefit high blood pressure, breathing problems and skin diseases. I arrived in Finland before Christmas with the lingering effects of an English cold that quickly dispelled in the sauna. Initially, I found it difficult to reconcile the teachings of traditional Chinese medicine about nurturing the function known as ‘the triple heater’ (the body’s thermostat) by avoiding extremes of heat and cold with traditional sauna practice, but experience has taught me to respect both traditions.
After the heat comes the cold. Brave sauna-takers will rush from the heat to jump into the nearest lake, breaking the ice if necessary, then back again to the heat, alternating heat and cold as many times as they wish. Our sauna in Kokkola (my wife is Finnish) is at the end of a large garden. Luckily, there is no nearby lake so I don’t need to break the ice, but we do walk back to the house through the snow in our dressing gowns, which is a stimulating enough experience.
Equality and diplomacy
The benefits of the sauna are by no means confined to the physical realm. Sitting naked in the heat can induce a near-meditative state, a sense of psychological wellbeing, an inner contentedness and a general feeling of goodwill. It is customary for those who work together, separated by gender, to take a sauna together at the end of the working day, after taxing sessions negotiating deals or making plans for the future. Uniforms, ranks and hierarchies are literally stripped away, together with pretensions and false senses of grandeur. Few other countries have such a general sense of equality.
This freedom from outer and inner clothing, this return to a silent zero, to a blank canvas, is used diplomatically by Finland. One of the first tasks of Finnish soldiers serving as peacekeepers anywhere in the world is to build a sauna. Finnish embassies and consulates throughout the world have a sauna, which guests are invited to join. Perhaps the best-known example of sauna diplomacy was when president Urho Kekkonen invited president Nikita Khrushchev to join him in the sauna for his sixtieth birthday. They stayed together until five am. This sauna led to a softening of the hard edges of the cold war that might have all too easily blown up into full-scale conflict. Soon after, Nikita Khrushchev’s Soviet government expressed support for Finland’s cooperation with the West. To this day, Finland acts as a vital intermediary between Europe and Russia, quietly easing away the tensions and returning both sides to a common, naked and well-meaning humanity.
