Sininen hämy laskeutuu pakkasessa kimmeltävän hangen ylle. Katse hakeutuu taivaalle. Onko tulossa tähtikirkas yö?
Hankien ympäröimä joulusauna tupruttaa kutsuvasti savua piipustaan. Ja tuollahan joulutonttu jo hiippailee saunan ympärillä kiuluineen. Se on kutsu koko perheelle astella lumista polkua pitkin joulusaunaan. Jos on ollut kiire tai stressi, saunan lempeät löylyt rauhoittavat mielen, ja voit aloittaa aaton vieton. Edessä odottavat muut jouluperinteet, jouluateria ja ehkäpä pukkikin tulee.
Joulusauna on ollut aina suomalaisille yksi tärkeimmistä joulutraditioista. Sauna on kaiken puhtauden symboli, onhan siellä synnytty ja kuoltukin. Saunominen yhdistää perheitä ja ystäviä. Jouluna saunaan mennään yleensä vanhan perinteen mukaisesti ennen kuin ilta pimenee.
Moni, jolla on sisäsaunan lisäksi ulkosauna, lämmittää ainakin jouluna tunnelmallisen pihasaunan. Taloyhtiöissäkin on tapana lämmittää asukkaille joulusauna. Saunan lämpö, tunnelmalliset kynttilät ja vedessä tuoksuvat saunavihdat lisäävät joulusaunan tunnelmaa. Ihon alle hiipinyt lämpö säilyy pitkään, ja koko keho on raukea.
Aattona saunotaan rauhassa ja pitkään hiljaisuuden vallitessa tai hiljaa rupatellen. Mutta ei kuitenkaan niin pitkään, että löylyt laimenisivat. Se on tärkeää, koska väen poistuttua joulusaunasta löylyihin saapuvat talon vainajat ja haltiat. Muistathan siis heittää viimeiseksi tujakat löylyt heitä varten. Ja ovi rakoselleen, jotta heidän on helppo kulkea. Muista myös poistua saunasta ennen pimeän tuloa, jotta nämä arvokkaat vieraat näkevät tulla.
Stämning i Julbastun
Julbastu i ljussken och skimrande snödrivor. Ångan som reser sig från huden upp mot den kolsvarta himmelen. Det är det finska själslivet.
Vi lever största delen av året i mörker och kyla. Då smakar bastubadandet. På vintern värmer bastun våra lemmar som blivit kalla i kölden. Den smeker våra trötta kroppar och ger plåster på såren. Bastubadandet kan jämföras med en ritual där man renar sig kroppsligt och andligt. Efter bastun känner man sig som återfödd. Till vinterbastun hör det väsentligt till att rulla i snön eller att bada i en isvak.
En bastutur står över de andra, julbastun. Speciellt inom de familjer vars julstök redan är undanstökat. Den nutida husfrun tänker ännu i julbastun på allt som ska göras även om detta inte hör hemma i bastun. Bastubadandet borde man planera så att allt arbete redan är gjort. Att man har tid att ta det lugnt och varva ner, förbereda sig inför julfirandet. Julbastuns stämning skapar man med granris och ljus.
Bastuhonung
Du kan unna din hud lite lyx med att smörja den med egen tillverkad bastuhonung. Tillred en större mängd och ge till exempel som present till din granne. Bastuhonung tillreder man förmånligt av honung som mjukas upp med olja.
Tillsätt lite olivolja och några droppar Tea Tree olja i honungen.
Genom att pröva några gånger hittar du den rätta konsistensen.
Tea Tree olja kan ersättas med någon annan eterisk olja. Tillsätt några droppar i taget så att doften inte blir för intensiv.
Finnish essentials
The Sauna – SWEAT & ENJOY
The Finnish habit of sweating in a little dark hut and then rolling naked in the snow is quite a curiosity for many foreigners.
However, the Sauna is a vital part of every Finns essential nature.
The sauna is to Finns, as wine is to the French – a necessity of life! In summer, you have the healing sunrays that warm up the water drops on your skin. In winter, the candle lit sauna, the shining white snow and the transparent steam that rises from your skin against the dark winter sky. These are the memories of Finnish skin.
The most typical association of the Finnish sauna is a lakeside sauna, green birches, untouched nature and a sunny summer evening — and it is true. Nevertheless, the cold fact is, literally, that winter is quite long. During this period, the healing warmth of a sauna makes the Finns relax. In winter the warm sauna heals our tired bodies and is a balm for our souls. Small details can add to your sauna pleasure. Flexible whisks of juniper branches and spiced honey, linen towels, candle light, all add up to tranquillity. Treat your skin with homemade sauna lotions made from honey, olive oil and tea tree oil.
The sauna is comparable to a retreat; it is like a ritual, a mental and physical purification, after which we feel newly born. Moreover, even in winter many Finns like to go swimming in the frozen lake or at least roll around in the snow. A good shock for ones blood circulation.
From the cradle to the grave
The sauna has a tradition of over 2000 years in Finland. Central Europe also used sweat baths but the bathing culture deteriorated between 1500 and 1600, when they suspected that syphilis spread in the sauna. However, in Finland the sauna was never banned.
Saunas were important at both the beginning and end of life. In Finland children were born in saunas and it is where the deceased were prepared for their final journey.
The first female networks were generated in saunas. Women dried linen, smoked meat and brewed beer in saunas. Saunas were used not only to bath but also to heal. Suction cupping was a very common practice that took place in saunas. Sweating was also believed to improve ones health. In addition to healing places, saunas were also sacred places.
In those days, most of the saunas were smoke saunas, originally buried into the ground. As Finns got proficient with log building, saunas arose above ground. We have come a long way since then. In eastern and western Finland, saunas were different in both appearance and heating techniques, but they were nevertheless smoke saunas. These days smoke saunas are cherished rarities. Even though the smoke sauna has made a new come back, you hardly find public smoke saunas in cities.
The great equaliser
Whilst, as late as the sixties and seventies it was still a working class ritual to have a sauna on Fridays after a hard working week, the sauna is a great equaliser. Class distinctions are stripped away — it is hard to be bumptious and puffed up when you are naked. If there are discussions while bathing, they are led according to the principles of equality. However, it is common that nobody talks and a comfortable quietness fills the sauna. Even the most callous babbler, if not completely deranged, lets others enjoy their silent privacy.
Public saunas were booming as urbanization brought people to Helsinki for work. Apartment buildings did not have saunas in those days, but usually there was a wood heated public sauna on each block. As the society got wealthier, saunas were built in cellars of apartment buildings, and later even in flats. As this happened, public wood-heated saunas faced hard times since there were not enough visitors anymore.
Unwritten rules
Traditionally different generations of Finns occupied the sauna at the same time; usually women and children first, followed by the men. Nowadays, with small family sizes and relatives living elsewhere, it is common for households to bath together. Friends often bath together regardless of gender — at least younger ones. When you have older guests, women and men usually go to the sauna separately. This is convenient because saunas are often quite small and it is not comfortable if it is crowded.
In Central Europe, there are public saunas that are visited by both genders at the same time. This strikes a Finn as weird, since in Finnish public places like spas or sports facilities there are always separate saunas for men and women. However, where ever one baths in public there are certain unwritten rules that Finns get in their mothers milk.
It is not appropriate to quarrel, raise ones voice or otherwise behave in a disturbing manner in the sauna. It is not appropriate to throw so much water on the stones of the stove that others lose their bathing pleasure in the arising heat.
Discussions about sex, religion or politics are best left outside. Always take other bathers into consideration. If you bath alone you can do as you please. Sing out of tune or meditate.
A whisk of birch twigs
In the last decade different sauna products have come ashore in Finland: essential oils for a good fragrance and a relaxed, healing atmosphere. Not everybody sees these products as necessary, but there is one product that has stood fast over the years: the whisk of birch twigs. A home made whisk can now be replaced with a bought one, and the product assortment even includes deep frozen whisks of birch twigs — while bathing you can enjoy the scent of summer 365 days a year. Foreigners are often astonished when seeing how Finns beat themselves with a whisk of twigs – and each other for that matter. Is this how these God forsaken creatures treat themselves – like desperate sinners? But actually it looks worse than it is.
From here to eternity
The Finnish sauna has lived through many phases. It has survived the pest and many wars, moved from the countryside to big cities, but it has still kept its original character. The Finnish sauna has been relentless and the social meaning of going to the sauna has only grown. There isn’t a Finnish football club or literature group that wouldn’t arrange a sauna evening for a small get together every now and then. An evening in the sauna with friends can be everything from hilarious partying to barbecuing or meditating in candle light in a mildly heated sauna.
Tekstit Päivi Ahvonen, Reija Kokkola Kuvat Virpi Lehtinen