Sauna - Traditions and Old Beliefs

Traditions and Old Beliefs

In Finland, Estonia and Latvia as well in Russia, the sauna is an ancient custom. It used to be a holy place, a place where women gave birth, and where the bodies of the dead were washed. There were also many beliefs and charms that were connected to sauna. It was, among other things, a place for worshipping the dead – it was thought of as such a wonderful place that even the dead would surely like to return to it. Curing diseases and casting love spells could also happen in the sauna. As in many other cultures, fire was seen as a gift from heaven in Finland, and the hearth and the sauna oven were its altars.

One word in Finnish, strictly connected to sauna, is löyly. It is difficult to translate precisely, but denotes the heat of the sauna room, especially the heat derived from throwing water on the hot stones of the sauna oven. (Löyly, pronounced, can be understood as sauna steam). Originally this word meant spirit or life. In many languages which are related to Finnish, there is a word corresponding to löyly. The closest example appears in the Estonian language, leil. The same meaning of "spirit" is also used in Latvian. Another example is lil in Ostyak, which means soul, pointing to the sauna's old, spiritual essence.

There still exists an old saying, "saunassa ollaan kuin kirkossa," – one should be(have) in the sauna as in church.

Saunatonttu, literally translated the sauna elf, is a little gnome or tutelary spirit that was believed to live in the sauna. He was always treated with respect, otherwise he might cause much trouble for people. It was customary to warm up the sauna just for the tonttu every now and then, or to leave some food outside for him. It is said that he warned the people if a fire was threatening the sauna, or punished people who behaved improperly in it – for example slept, or played games, argued, were generally noisy or behaved otherwise "immorally" there. Such creatures are believed to exist in different cultures. The Russian banya has an entirely identical character called a bannik.

In Thailand, women spend hours in a makeshift sauna tent during a month following child birth. The steam is typically infused with several herbs. It is believed that the sauna helps the new mother's body return to its normal condition more quickly.