The Sauna Experience

Sauna is pronounced 'sow (like a female pig)-na.' It is NOT pronounced 'saw-na.' I REPEAT it is NOT pronounced 'saw-na'!
To read the generalized article on Wikipedia about saunas, go here. To read the article on Finnish saunas, go here.


There are very few things that I miss by not being 'with' The Family, and the number one thing I miss is the sauna. It has been at least 5 years since I actually had a sauna and I am beginning to feel my Finnish ancestors booing and hissing from beyond the grave! This is a completely unheard of situation for a Finn--and I am not too sure how I am going to fix it. We don't have our own sauna--yet--and I am not sure if we will build one before we build our new house (hopefully it will happen).

The sauna experience I am used to is probably quite different from any you may have had. The sauna, to us, is where we bathe. We are completely naked in the sauna and would laugh our asses off if someone tried to go into the sauna wearing a bathing suit. (We once had friends ask if they needed to bring their swimsuits in order to go into the sauna--we laughed.)


A sauna is not a very big building/area--at least the ones I was ever familiar with. A lot of the saunas I was in as a child looked a lot like this:


When you first walk in the door, there is a changing room where you, well, change. Actually, you take your clothes off before proceeding into the next room, which is the washroom. In the washroom there are several benches made of wood attached to the walls on one side--usually two, sometimes three levels of benches. Close to the benches is the stove. Our 'authentic' saunas here have wood-burning stoves in them. Some municipalities don't allow wood-burning saunas to be built in homes, so a lot of people have electric heat. Anyway, on the top of the stove is a layer of rocks. They usually are a nice size, about as big around as a baseball, and are quite flat. A good place to get these rocks are on the shore of Lake Superior. The rock level is several inches deep. In the really old saunas, there is a water tank next to the stove. This was from when saunas didn't have running water and all of the water had to be hauled in. The stove heated the water needed for bathing. In some saunas, the cold water was kept in milk cans. There are always buckets at the ready--this is where you would prepare your wash water. Even today, with running water and showers in saunas, there still will be wash buckets.

I always preferred to go into the sauna after everyone else had been. I like it when the fire is just beginning to burn down. I also find the temp of 120-150 to be the best for me. Some people like it very hot: 170+ degrees! Sitting on the top bench makes one sweat--and that is what the sauna is for. The sweating process helps rid the body of toxins and does great things for the skin. Just when you are getting used to the heat, it is time to 'take steam.' Remember those rocks on the stove? They are there just for this purpose. The fire has heated the rocks very, very much and to 'make steam' you pour water onto them. Believe me, if you aren't used to this, you want to do it v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. If you pour too much water, too fast on the rocks, it can literally take your breath away. NOT a good feeling. And once again, you sit and sweat. Some people like to 'beat' themselves with birch or cedar branches, once they have gotten to this point. It is supposed to get the circulation going and help release more toxins. NOT for me--I guess I'm just not into S&M. Once you get too hot, you can always go into the changing room to cool off for a while and then begin the process all over again. Of course, if you were lakeside, you could jump into the lake to cool off--bathing suit optional. But, the sauna experience for me is all about the cleansing. Some people will repeat the process over and over for several hours.

When all of the sweating is over, then it is time to wash. The Parents have a shower right in the washroom. How convenient! Other saunas have showers separate from the steamroom--for the most part, these would be newer ones. Again, the washroom/steamroom was one and the same in the older saunas because of the lack of running water.

The WORST part about the whole sauna experience is trying to quit the sweating process. Unless you stand outside in the snow and cold, it takes a while. In the summer, there are times where you feel as if you haven't bathed at all. Depending on how many times you do the steam/cool down bit, you can feel very 'drained' when you are done. It is a great sleeping aid!

Saunas are, for the most part, ALWAYS heated on Saturday. And most people who have saunas can pretty much count on having 'sauna company.' These are people who don't have their own saunas, so they visit on sauna night so they can use yours. While I was growing up, we didn't have a sauna, so we would always visit somewhere on Saturday. We usually would go to my aunt and uncle's farm--they had kids around my and The Brother's age, so we would have someone to play with. We always got there early and left late.

This is how my Saturday nights went when I was growing up:

We would get to the farm where the cousins, The Brother, and I would get to play for a few hours. Depending on the time, we sometimes went to get the cows from the field for milking. Sometimes we would play in the hay barn or watch the milking process. But, mainly, we would just run around, having a good time. Eventually we would be called in so that we could start the sauna process. The youngest kids--usually The Brother and the cousin his age--would go and have their baths first. (This was when the sauna was the coolest.) The Mother and my aunt would go in and wash the boys up--at least when they were too young to wash themselves. When they were done, my cousin and I would go in and wash. Then the grownups would go--usually a husband and wife would go together--until everyone was done. During this entire evening, food was being prepared and served. And there was TV watching to be done! First came 'The Lawrence Welk Show.' (Not a favorite of ours.) After that came 'Gunsmoke' followed by 'Have Gun Will Travel.' The evening was topped off with 'Saturday Night Fights' or 'Hockey Night in Canada' during the winter. By this time, it was time to get home and into bed.

There definitely are times that I get nostalgic and would like things to be different between me and my family--and then I remember why things are as they are. I think I will just keep my memories and thoughts of a simpler time all to myself.