Letting off Steam, the Finnish Way
Article in Blue Wings in 1997, by Tim Bird

Some like it hot, not least the Finns. If you haven't already tried sauna bathing in Finland, it will only be a matter of time before someone introduces you to it. Watch out: perspiration can be habit-forming!

Imagine the scene: you take your clothes off and stem into a murky room. There are other naked men sitting next to you on wooden benches. Someone throws some water on a stove and the warmth in this little wood-lined chamber becomes an inferno. The sweat is running down your arms, your flesh is glistening. Your hear gasps and exclamations from along the wooden bench. You drop your head to avoid the initial scalding of the steam.

Someone takes a bunch of birch twigs from a tub of water and starts beating you on the back and neck. Your skin stings, there's a sweet smell of wet leaves, some of them pasted to your legs. You get up and follow the other men out of the door and your bare feet sink into several inches of snow. The steam coils around you as you trot through the frost to the lake side. You jump into a hole in the ice and splash around for a few seconds. Your skin has turned red as you pick your way through the snow and back to the little chamber. You pass a steaming body sprawled in the snow, rubbing a pink thigh with a handful of white crystals. You go back into the chamber. The door closes, someone throws water on the stove, the cycle is repeated.

Nobody is holding a gun to your head. It isn't an inflicted punishment or torture. You are doing this because you want to. What's more, you're not some sort of pervert or masochist.

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Above all, they'll do their best to make sure you share the experience. You might as well give in. It's a simple, uncomplicated pleasure, to which nobody is exempt from access. So never mind the mysticism: just remember you've only one duty in the sauna and that's to enjoy it.

VBt

Does it come with a happy ending..?? :O