The History and Mythology of the Sauna in Finland
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2022
- #sauna #finland #ancient
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Sources:
Nordskog, M., Hautala, A (2010)The Opposite of Cold-The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition; University of Minnesota Press
Tuntematon, valokuvaaja. Helsinkiläinen sauna. www.finna.fi. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
Häkkinen, Kaisa (2004): Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja. WSOY: Helsinki. pp. 1131-1132
Finland in Figures, Buildings and summer cottages, Statistics Finland, 2011-06-22
Norros, Mikko (May 2009). "Bare facts of the sauna in Finland". thisisFINLAND.
Kauppinen K (1997). "Facts and fables about sauna". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 813 (1): 654-62. Bibcode:1997NYASA.813..654K.
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F.A.Q.
How old are you?
29
Where are you from?
Dublin Ireland
Where do you live?
Oulu, Finland
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Canon EOS 2000d, Samsung A52
Boya MM1 microphone
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Video Guru
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irishinfinland
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I lived in Finland for a short while and always really enjoyed the sauna. When I came back to England I built my very own puu sauna. I have a sauna tontuu called Taavi who guards it.
Fantastic! Nothing better than a puu sauna in my opinion 👌🏻
@@IrishinFinland Thank you for a good video and great info. By the way, it is written "puusauna" which means "wooden sauna". Compound words in Finnish language are ubiquitous ... Even we Finns often must check whether a word is a compound word or two separate words. That is, if we want to be exact in writing.
@@jounisuninen To be clear puusauna is a term used with saunas heated with firewood burning kiuas ( sauna stove).
@@jounisuninen Yes, I remember from somewhere a real long compound word you have..... something to do with aircraft engines or engineer students? lentokone......................
Hyvä homma
Great video !
I'm Finnish and Irish and my Finnish relatives in Northern Michigan fire up the Sauna every Saturday and invite the neighbors.
Whole families bath together and jump into the snow during the winter afterwards.
A bunch of cedar branches tied together stimulates circulation.
I'm building my sauna this spring in Northern Arizona to keep my Finish tradition alive.
Thanks for you channel to inspire many.
Damn that sounds fantastic! 🔥👌🏻
I would not go around calling myself finnish, if my closest finnish relatives were immigrants to the US. You are most likely just an american, but you might at best have a distant relation to finland.
@@castform57 They are trying to preserve a part of their heritage... It's not that deep 😀
Or maybe it is, since you can take a Finn out of a sauna, but you can't take the sauna out of a Finn.
@@castform57 dude i wouldnt call many finns that actually live in Finland Finnish they just arent that American dude in the comments he is way more Finnish than those that i spoke of
That sounds awesome! Im from Finland and live in Canada right beside the upper peninsula of Michigan and theres actually a surprising amount of people in this area with Finnish heritage
My mom always insists that I throw "a sacrifice löyly" to the sauna tonttu on christmas eve since I'm always the last person in there.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I learned that one should add more wood to the stove when done, for the spirit of the sauna to enjoy.
The reasoning mind translates that to ensuring the sauna dried properly after all that water splashing about. The heart feels otherwise, for reasons that reason does not comprehend.
The last löyly is actually for the ancestors, as well as for the saunatonttu. The tradition is that the master of the house (I guess these days it can also be the mistress) always exits sauna last and will throw the last löyly when stepping out for the ancestors of the family, as they will enjoy sauna after the family has departed. We still follow this tradition. Interestin, and scary, depiction of this is found in Mikko Kamula's book "Ikimetsien sydänmailla" when one of the main characters goes back to sauna during the Köyri (Halloween) dinner and the ancestors are not happy to be disturbed. I have never heard this kind of "evil" side of the ancestral spirits, though, but maybe Kamula knows better. He is after all a Master of Folklorist (Is that a correct term?).
the last one in sauna, throws sauna tontulle his well deserved löylyt. after that no one shall disturbes him or...
The most common rule in the sauna has long been, "Don't shout, don't cry, be quiet and nice because otherwise the spirit of the sauna will take you away." And for this reason, the etiquette of the sauna is still not allowed to make loud noise or quarrel in the sauna. And in the sauna we must observe absolute peace and a good spirit.
I like that 👌🏻
@@IrishinFinland there is also made a "simulator sauna spirit/devil game" :DDDDDDDDDD
Don't cry as in "don't cry outloud?" or "i'm sad and crying"? If it's the 2nd, why this particular tradition?
@@kataratify In Finland, crying (without tearing) is more associated with theatrical act of loud moaning and complaining than with grief, sorrow or sadness. If people are sad they, under deep melancholy, tend to quiet down and close. But when a person cries, it means in Finland that they makes a big number out of something and expresses it out loud so that everyone can hear it.
@@kataratify lol
If foreign missionaries had tried to tell Finns to get rid of saunas, the Finns would have instead converted those missionaries into the sauna religion. But of course there was no need since most foreigners quickly fall in love with the magnificence of sauna all on their own.
From sauna is bad to "Our Lord regularly enjoyed sauna and every house in heaven has a sauna as it's his will."
Not to mention the importance of sauna for soldiers in the frontline during our wars. I remember a photo from Karhunmäki in Feb 1942 with the text telling that it took an hour to build the sauna, and after two hours it was ready to be used. (Finnish peacekeepers are enjoying sauna also today, and obviously making friends from the foreigners who want to enjoy proper "löyly" :)
Lovely video!
Reminds me of a guy I knew who's task during the winter war was to carry in dead frozen bodies into a sauna in Helsinki close to the rail station. After some time in the hot sauna there was sounds from the sauna and it was now possible to lay them straight into their coffins after undressing and dressing them.
It was what it was and you cannot always choose what you do in a war, he told me.
That would be a telt sauna of course.
@@hurri7720 A good story, and makes sense! I am wondering whether it happened at the central railway station or in that old morgue in Vallila (the train tracks ran there as well... you can find it - ironically, I know - with the name Harjun nuorisotalo.)
@@osk9013 , I simply don't know, born in 44 I came to know quite a few people who took part in the war one way or the other and I later regretted that I did not ask them more.
And sometimes I wonder why they told me anything in the first place.
Right now I remember a guy who lost his leg in the war as a young guy and told me it was a mental hell until he found out women are capable of loving a man with just one leg.
What is there to ask.
Damn it the amount of broken men we kids met on the streets of Helsinki then.
@@hurri7720 I can just imagine. I have been talking a lot with one of my relatives who is now 97 and with clear mind. Many couldn't even talk about their experience but for him it was "less traumatic" (younghood, without own family --> more fearless, adventurous) than for many others. He says that he was lucky of being a sniper (better sleeping places), and having the priviledge to serve with the guys from the same village. (But he also says that there is nothing heroic in anwar, it is just a task and a survival fight.)
“In Karelia, after centuries of temporal use, the sauna acquired spiritual significance. The sanctity of the sauna was supported by ritual and strict propriety.
In 1776 it was written by an astonished Swedish economist: 'They even connect the sauna with their theology and think the sauna building is some kind of shrine.' And an old saying says even today: 'This strict reverence protected the Finnish and Karelian sauna from the corruption that befell most other bathing institutions in Europe'.”
- Alfred Kolehmainen
When Finns emigrated en masse to America around the turn of the 20th century, the first building produced in their homesteads was always a sauna. My great grandparents and many other Minnesota Finns followed that tradition
Sou neto de finlandes tomamos savu sauna eu meu pai filhos netos bisnetos terceira geração levando essa cultura finlandesa a nossa família
De onde você e Daniel?
Ola sou de Monte Mor SP
@@danielhamalainen9702 Ah legal. Uma savusauna no Brasil parece uma ideia estranha, mas como finlandês, agradeço.
Meu pai filho de finlandes nascido no Brasil meus avós trouxe da Finlândia após a segunda guerra a legítima sauna finlandesa eu como neto gosto muito e se puder levar essa tradição original a meus filhos e netos que já estão se acostumando com isso orgulho para minha família
And Goddess bless the northern cultures! No matter what the spiritual association might have been, the chance to get really thoroughly WARM from time to time must have been a blessing!
As a sauna owner and 3-4 times user, I really enjoyed this video. The beer is better now than in the stoneage. The Sauna cleans the body and the soul. I get imported Renko branded cut birch and soaps.
Over 70% of Finns belong to Lutheran Church, which is a protestant christian church. Only about generous 2% of Finns will go to the Church more than once a year. If they do, it will be for those big ones like weddings, funerals, christenings and the confirmation. That said religion is highly private a matter in Finland and showing your beliefs publicly is not seen as very honest about any short of beliefs. As for the sauna - nearly all of us will go to sauna at least once a week, if not more - when ever possible. Honestly you get a lot more calm, relaxation and generally practical as well as good moods from sauna than any short of a church service. It may no longer be about shamanistic beliefs - but it certainly is the first or the second form of a 'temple' for us still, if the forest remains the other.
Yes we are happy we don't have much of the maddest Evangelicals like they have in the USA.
Religion is not a sham in Finland.
Hi! TH-cam recommendation algorithm hits again.
@@Keinapappa Moro, toivottavasti kitkuttelee hyvin. Täällä on ihan ok. Tietty toi Venäjän pullistelu panee vähän vakavalle päälle. :) Meitin netti kohteet ovat kaiten aika pieni hakukenttä kun noin vaan törmäillään, mutta mikäs siinä.
(Just saying hello to a mate. You know hoping he is ok. Commenting on Russia getting troublesome and how small the field for us Finns to run into friends online is.)
Oh its lot less now insane amount of finns dont want anything to do with any religions and for a good reason they are all murderers and liars some beatiful day every fucking religion is out of this country i just hope it happened before i die
My father, born in 1905 was born in the sauna, but the reason for that was that a sauna is clean, warm and has (can have) warm water. Cleaning a dead body before burial I think is rather international.
In my experience the best löyly is in the smoke saunas. When I was teen my grandfather taught me how to heat up their smoke sauna - it took 4 hours and I kind of had to "smoke dive" every 15 minutes into the sauna (crawl under smoke level, there was like 40-50cm visible area under the smoke, couldn't breath there) when I had to go add logs into the fireplace. Then it was sauna bathing and swimming in river for hours. Good smoke sauna stays warm enough through the night so that you can go to sauna the next morning without heating it up again. We also grilled sausages on the rocks after the sauna - the whole smoke sauna evening was a treat!
Thanks - My grandpa built a smoke sauna in Northern Michigan. However, it was gone long ago. Your description was similar to the way my aunt described it. She much preferred a "normal" sauna.
No matter where a finn go, there will always be sauna with em :)
My family had 5 saunas.
@@atypicalaspie7208 Thats the spirit! never can't have too many :)
Even on Moon and Mars
where finnish peacekeepers goes, so does sauna
when i was a little kid, every saturday sauna tonttu brought some candy to our kitchen while we were in the sauna XD but if we were not nice in the sauna we didnt get our candy :D
Sauna is also equal. Man or woman, old or young, black or white, doesn't matter; everyone is welcome. On another note, Me and my friends rented a sauna tent last summer, and it was awesome. Definitely gonna make that one a tradition. Great video once again brother.
The love connection with solstice vasta is a new one to me, thanks for that gem.
Further to the vihta-vasta thing I had a look in my 1919 finnish english dictionary and found vihta housu is Old Harry, the old fellow himself, voi saakeli. Vasta is now.
Dictionaries apart regional words and words with diffrent meanings by the manor are the spice and bottomles swamp of Finnish language. Have fun learning it! 😋
@@Timppa555555555 I grew up hearing karjalan for the most part, many words not in any dictionary
Subscribed as thanks to your service to our culture! Sáuni used to be a holy portal between the two worlds due to it being a Savusauna. A Sáuna filled with hemp smoke. Cannabis renders one's mind holy of state. Thus, a new carrier of tuskers can be birthed thereupon the sacred wood that is as conscious as humans.
Sauna really is pure meditation, in mind and body.
I know friends that have been born in sauna even just 30 years ago. I don't know if it was a deliberate choice, of if the baby was in a hurry, though🤔
My father was born in a sauna. The hospital was just too far, as they did not have any means of getting to one that easily back then. He is now 80 years old.
Mum was born in a sauna
Thank you so much for this video =) You just made my day
I am very impressed by the quality of this video which is very complete, probably the most complete I have seen on saunas.
Little details about weddings, the bride and groom went to the sauna with either their bridesmaids or groomsmen.
The day before the wedding, these 2 groups went to bathe in a lake to purify themselves physically and spiritually, and went to the sauna for the same reasons, but also to make themselves beautiful and healthy for the big day.
It's like now spending the day before the wedding day at the spa.
Sauna traditions and beliefs are one of my favourites, because I think they're one of the most well reserved parts of our mythology still known today. I remember being taught about saunatonttu as a kid as well. Another very common ones are the magic spells you can do for juhannus, that sauna is also part of. I think for that reason I've always felt like there's still some magic left in saunas, especially the one we have at our summer cottage. It is over 100 years old and warmed traditionally with real fire, and there is just something special about that.
I'm wondering how common it is or isn't to still have sprinkles of magic in your culture these days? More or less the way finns do. Are there many other modern cultures like ours that still keep alive some of the old tales of magic? Considering that Kalevala, which is essentially a book full of spells, is a very important part of finnish culture.
I know at least some asian cultures do (I'm mostly familiar with korean), but I wonder how common it is in the rest of europe (apart from other nordic countries obviously)
Somewhere I learned that during the wars, the finns gave their horses used on the frontlines sauna-baths , or equivalent/sort of , to maintain the horses and keep them fit and able to work hard during the extremely cold and harsh conditions. Maybe that would be worth a video?
I've heard the story about the old Finnish mercenaries going to war at some foreign coutry, local people thought they are witches when they went to sauna, strange noises were heard from inside and when they came out their skin was steaming.
Sorry i can't recall the timeframe or the war, it's so long time ago i heard this.
Ps. I've always thought the reason of giving birth in sauna is simply practical, it's so easy to clean all the mess.
It was probably during the 30-years war in Europe. (Protestantism against Catholism.) Finnish troops in the Swedish army were known as Hakkapeliitta - the name derived from their attack scream "Hakkaa päälle!" which means something like "Crush them!".
BTW Finnish troops were not mercenaries, they were forcibly recruited from Finland. Every household was obliged to provide one soldier with a horse to join the Swedish army. Needless to say it was a heavy and hated form of consciption for the nation, where ordinary people were mostly simple and poor forest-dwellers. They looked different, behaved and spoke differently than the rest of the Swedish army in Europe, and were skilled horsemen warriors.
Fascinating video, with a lot that l was unaware of. l really respect you for making these interesting video clips - an lrish person is teaching Finns about Finland? Yes! l must admit that l learn so much from your videos; kudos to you!
Considering how the breathing and sweating becomes visible in the freezing temperature, it's no wonder why the löyly (steaming water) might relate to life-force.
Your finnish is great! 😊
Thank you very much! Try find the bit in this video where I pronounced sauna in my normal Irish accent 🤣
What a lovely video to watch just before I go to enjoy my löyly!
Kiitos! Really good one.
Excellent video on sauna. Very well gathered and put together history, culture, meaning and interesting tidbits. I'll be sharing this with some international friends for sure!
I appreciate that Hanna 🤟🏻 thank you very much
ur knowledge about the sauna is much more than my, and i am from finland. 🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
Quality content, as always. For me, sauna is a place of worship as well... kind of ;)
There is also this hugely favoured ancient sauna tradition called saunaklonkku (sauna gollum) every Finn does this tradition.
Theres just something about hot steam, cool water, dark room and wet wooden benches. You don't know what being clean is if you have never been to sauna.
Also pouring water on kiuas with a full bucket is a shit idea. Don't do it. It's fun until the full force of hot steam rushes your face and lungs.
My opinion is that there are more saunas than citizens in Finland. My friend here in Spain has a sauna , when back in Finland he has 2 saunas there. My son has 3 saunas , his mother's old design sauna , one in his present home and one by the lake Koitere.
I have seen saunas on boats , floating on the lakes , in caravans , behind a trailer and behind a skiidoo .
I have 3 saunas... 😉
@@katjavuori , I am the modest one with only two.
Thank you!
My pleasure!
Jeremy Soule's Secunda is a spot on music choice for this clip
❤
Thanks for the video. I learned about origins and use of the vasta. Agree about good sleep on sauna days. The sleep is better if the sauna was really hot >190F to 200F.
Were statues or icons of sauna elves used?
Great work! I love saunas, and try to do it as often as I can. Very interested in sauna-culture - considering writing a book about it. This video was right up my alley.
Any recommendations for sources or books to check out? (Except for the ones in the description, that is)
As a Finn, it would be really interesting to visit a sauna in the US, probably Michigan(?), where a lot of Finnish immigrants settled. Would be interesting to see the similarities and the differences in the actual saunas and possible in the habits which have developed over time in the "new world".
When I was a child and teenager in Finland, we made challenges, to the one or those who stayed the longest in the sauna, there were pledges and rewards.
Pledges and rewards depending on the circumstances and the people participating, such as who decides on the future activity, or who will do the chores.
Parents can try to get the kids to clean up, but the kids could get to choose what they would have for dinner.
How to be so Finnish that it physically hurts
Throw some löyly, everyone stands up and sings the national anthem (the only time anyone was allowed to be "noisy" in a sauna, of course). No one is allowed to sit down or exit before the whole song is sung.
Ah, to be in upper secondary again...
As Estonian where sauna tradition is very big. The weirdest folk lore about saunas that I know is that the dead that are put in sauna change to chicken.
If it has an engine - you can race it. If it has roof and walls - you can convert it to sauna. Finland in nutshell.
There's an old Finnish saying: "Sauna is the poor man's pharmacy"
I like that
Jos ei viina, terva ja sauna auta, on tauti kuolemaks.
Yeah no but seriously. I'm studying in Japan, and it is Christmas eve. I walked 4km out just to find a bathhouse with a sauna in it because god DAMN if I'm left without sauna on Christmas!
I live from finland and i was in sauna two times weeks
I once go
t thrown out of a Spanish sauna because "I'm not supposed to throw water in the fucking KIUAS". They told me I was gonna break it...
I have always felt like a bad Finn as I don’t really like sauna. I have low blood pressure and the heat always makes me dizzy. I have to leave quickly when I start seeing stars.
Auttaisko ehkä alemmilla lauteilla istuminen? Mie itte teen joskus sillee jos alkaa huimaamaan kun haluisin viel nauttii löylystä vähäsen.
Each to their own! 🤟🏻
There is no reason to torture your self with sauna, get it to the temperature you are comfortable.
It really doesn’t feel like sauna if it’s under 60 degrees!
meanwhile i have burned my shoulders and back in sauna many times, just because too hot löylys :DDD (100-120 celsius and a lot of water on the stove)
Wait is that music from Oblivion?
Close! Skyrim ✊🏻
In Livi dialect sauna was called as "kyly".
skyrim music in background....nice
In the end of the time period when Finland was still a part of Swedish territory, saunas were forbidden in the Kingdom, since they were considered immoral. However, in the Eastern half of the kingdom people refused to accept the ban. They would not work if not allowed to go to a sauna every Saturday. So they were not possible to banish, and soon after, Sweden lost the Eastern part of it's territory to Russia. Finland then became an autonomous Grand Dutchy of Finland connected to the Russian Empire.
true story
I watched this video in the sauna 😂
Excellent 😎🔥
yeaa hes right, dont bother the saunatonttu...
Vasta allso had healing properties. Silverberch is antiseptic.
Sauna is still the Shit around here. We like hot environment after long times in cold. And we do the same in summer! One place where there are no fucking mosquitoes!
BTW did you try that floating sauna on Tuira-side of Oulujoki? Been a while msg:n to you.
That can’t be right. A sauna for roughly every two Finns ?! How ?
I'm looking out my balcony here having my morning coffee, I see a sauna boat, I see a normal sauna and I also see a portable sauna, no joke
@@IrishinFinland
Wow !!! How awesome is that ?!
Finland is too cool ! 😎
I have 3 saunas... 😉
@@katjavuori
That’s it !
I’m moving to Finland ! 😃
Did get ask permission to include a clip from drum maker Arto Hamalainen at 4:48? He's amazing and deserves a shout out.
I've been in contact with him and hopefully during summer he's coming on the channel
@@IrishinFinland brilliant! I’m planning to travel to Finland this summer and would love to connect with him. I’m a Canadian Finn in New York and shamanic practitioner.
looks like in all nordic countries like iceland still believes in elves, whats the difference ?
I'm so happy someone asked this because I thought myself the exact same thing about 2 months ago and I will defintley sometime soon make a video about this
And why women give birth in saunas, sauna happend to be most clean place in household 😅
My grandmother was born in sauna in 1925 offcourse even then there were mid wifes to help
sauna is place to empty mind🙏
Torille
Finland People hate sauna.
Oh yeah obviously
I'm half Finn. As I've been rediscovering my Finnic pagan roots in part thanks to your channel (Casper, WY, USA here), I encountered this wiki:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnic_paganism
You say the three souls you've encountered are itse (common with this wiki which I've understood as our conscious self), and loyla (don't know how to make the dots on my android) sounds closer to luonto which I've taken as an avatar or spirit animal totemism that exists outside the body as a kind of haltija to go to that inverse upside down Tuonela place to dreamwalk in Finnish pagans so sielulintu is also a warding talisman or sigil to protect a shaman's body from possession for those of us whose itse can leave one's body, but henki or loyla in your formulation is more of the breath of life or animating spark, the electromagnetic force or life force that animates our body. So what you call Haltija, I know as Luonto. Can you explain this difference?