Sauna culture in Finland: stripping off with strangers and becoming fast friends
- For Finns, a sauna is a routine ritual to be enjoyed throughout the year, where normally shy compatriots open up
- Public saunas abound, but on Helsinki Sauna Day, locals invite you into their personal sweaty spaces
Reached aboard a small ferry that departs during the summer months from Helsinki’s downtown Market Square, Lonna is a former military island that was, until a few years ago, off limits to the public. Now, though, the 150-metre-long island’s half-dozen buildings, in red brick and traditional red and yellow wood, have been renovated. One is a restaurant and another, facing the Baltic Sea, has been transformed into a public sauna.
The sauna is an important part of Finnish culture; most Finns take at least one a week, and there are said to be about one million public and private hot rooms in the country – one for every five people. Even in winter, the practice continues; ice swimming is popular and a roll in the snow or a dip in an ice-hole only serves to heighten the experience of a sauna. And on Helsinki Sauna Day, an annual event that this year took place on March 9, the stereotypically modest, taciturn Finn is encouraged to invite the uninitiated into his or her private sauna.
A visit to the capital at other times will have you stumbling upon saunas in hotels, fitness centres and at public swimming pools. Some are shared, others – like the one in Lonna – are divided between the sexes. (Tuesdays at the Lonna sauna are mixed, though; “Bring your swimsuit if you want,” advises the website.)
I strip and enter the heat, carrying the seat cover I was given on arrival. Inside the 20 square metre room, there is silence – well, almost. Traditionally, the sauna is a place of quiet contemplation, and even though some of the 10 people sitting here on wooden benches are chatting, they do so in hushed tones. The overall effect is calming and I feel myself unwind.
Wood-stove saunas are the most common type in Finland, and spruce and birch have been heating the stones at the top of Lonna’s stove since early this morning, raising the temperature to about 80 degrees Celsius. Finnish saunas are typically kept at between 60 and 100 degrees Celsius, which is above the dew point and thus ensures there is little steam, unlike in a Turkish hammam.