Tervetuloa to the quiet corner of Finnish Friends…
Enjoy a wide variety of stories, songs, and poetry relating sauna experiences, culture, and tradition. New to sauna? Read on for more about the history and prevalence of saunas in Finland and other areas of the world where Finn’s have settled over the years.
We’ve created this forum for you to post your own stories & photos of Saunas past and present in your life so you can contribute to a growing collective work here at Finnish Friends! A work that shares all of our passion for the heat and löyly from our saunas of past, present, and future.
Send us a photo of your sauna and we’ll add it to our site as well, along with your name, location, and some information about the background of your Sauna or your Sauna heritage. If you’re planning to build a Sauna soon you’ll find some good design ideas by looking at the wide variety of Saunas found here.
John and Lorraine Adams snowy sauna in Ishpeming, MI.
Dear Finnish Friends, Attached is a picture of a sauna that my wife and I built in 1997. It is a plan that we developed during the previous winter. The sauna exterior is milled cedar and all of the interior trim and partitions are also cedar. It is wood fired from a small wood storage room in the sauna. A unique feature is the inclusion of a half bath for the convenience of the female bathers. A screened porch on the front helps in cooling down without pesky mosquitos drawing blood. The building itself is a 14 X 20 structure and it is our pride and joy. We are located 7 miles north of Ishpeming, MI and really enjoy our touch of God’s country. My wife is 100% Finnish and I am 50% Finnish and we are very proud of our Finnish heritage. My mother was Lempi Parkkila, born in Greenland, MI; and my wife came from the family of Werner and Elizabeth Wirtala of Ishpeming, MI. A trip to Finland in 1999 with some time spent with relatives was a highlight in our lives. John and Lorraine Adams.
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Chuck and Ruth Waldron’s beautiful Sauna in the White Mountains of Arizona.
Dear Finnish Friends,
Enclosed is a photo of our sauna in the White Mountains of Northeastern Arizona. We have a cabin here at 8700 ft and use it to escape the summer heat in Tucson as well as for winter sporting activities. My wife Ruth, a “full blooded Finn” from the UP of Michigan, had this sauna built 4 years ago when we also built a garage. It is an “authentic old-fashioned woodburning sauna” just like the one that her family had and existed in most of the old farms in the UP. It is redwood on the outside and lined with cedar on the inside. The stove we had shipped from Bruce Crossing, MI and is an old fashion Nippa. We love it!! …and love your Internet site. Sincerely, Chuck and Ruth Waldron Tucson, AZ
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Byron & Mary Kesanen’s Sauna on Finnish Homestead property in Northern Minnesota.
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Byron’s Father, Elmer Kesanen, used his sauna almost every day into his 90’s.
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Ted & Missy Kesanen’s Sauna sure feels good after snowmobiling!
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A sauna of unknown origin in Minnesota.
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“Wherever in Finland (or Northern Minnesota, or the UP, or even Alaska) one stumbles upon a human dwelling, some distance from the house, by a river or by a lake, a small log or wood structure, they have undoubtedly stumbled upon a Finnish sauna.”
The sauna or steam bathhouse has become a trademark of Finnish people. No one knows when the first saunas appeared in Finland. Folktales and legends, hundreds of years old, tell how the people took “hot baths almost every evening.” Many people believed that bathing could drive away sickness or evil.
Every farm in Finland had a sauna. At first, saunas were found near streams. Later, they were attached to houses. After 1600, however, most saunas were special separate buildings.
Finnish immigrants to America often built steam bathhouses. For many families, this was the first building to appear on their new farm. It was used as a home until a house was built.
The saunas of Finnish farmers and immigrants to Wisconsin and Minnesota were made of squared logs. Logs were carefully cut at the ends to fit together tightly. Early saunas had a single room. People dashed naked from the house to the sauna, even in cold winter. Then many Finnish people added a second room, a dressing room. Benches lined the walls. A stove for heat, and pegs for hanging clothing, completed the room. A lantern, hung by a window
between the two rooms in the sauna, provided light.
The bathing room held a water tank, a tub, a stove and a wooden platform called a lavo. The lavo was about four or five feet above the floor. It was reached by steps.
Saunas did not have chimneys. Smoke from the stove escaped through a vent in the roof. Stoves were about four feet on a side. A fire was lighted several hours before the sauna was to be used. When the fire had burned out, the oven was hot. Also, the room was filled with smoke. A member of the family entered and threw a dipper of water on the oven. Clouds of steam rose and carried the smoke up and out of the vent. The lavo and steps were wiped clean of soot. The sauna was now ready for use. A pleasant smell of burned wood remained in the air.
Bathers could sit or lie on the steps or platform. They used tree twigs – called whisks – to slap their skin. After a while some steam escaped from the building. Then more water was tossed on the hot stones of the stove. Bathers sometimes remained in the sauna for several hours, perspiring and switching. Then they quickly cooled off by jumping into a lake or snowbank or by splashing themselves with cold water.
Sometimes small rooms were added to the sauna. The warmth was used to make grain seeds sprout. Meat, flax, herbs and berries were dried in the sauna. Mothers and daughters made candles there. At other times the sauna became a sickroom for the ill.
Saunas have been important to Finnish people for hundreds of years. One man wrote, “The sauna is the most beloved refreshment of the Finn. It is his dearest evening delight and his most important cure for sickness.” Another wrote, “A sauna offers peace and quiet away from the trouble of the farm.” An old Finnish saying sums it up: “If the sauna cannot help a man, death is near at hand.”
Today, a sauna is a good sign that a Finnish family lives on the farm. The walls are no longer made of logs. Boards, covered with tar paper, have often been used. Some modern saunas are made of cement blocks and have both hot running water and electricity. Times change, but saunas remain important to all Finns. ~ Author Unknown