Bath on the water in Finland. Finnish women and refugees will now bathe in communal saunas

Many peoples have their own bathing traditions, which may seem strange to others, and sometimes indecent. Not in every country, going to the local bath, the Russian will feel at home.

Three in a Japanese barrel

Traditional Japanese baths may seem the most “shameless” to a Russian person. A furaco bath is a large wooden barrel filled with water. Often this water was taken from hot thermal springs. In order not to change the water every time after washing one person, washing with soap and a washcloth is done in advance.
The whole family or just a few people can sit in the furako, if the barrel is located in a public bath, for this there are benches on the sides of the barrel.
In public Japanese baths in the old days there were servant girls who provided visitors with intimate services. Some places of entertainment in Japan continue this tradition today. Are they called "soap country"? and clients are washed in them, and then they are “entertained”.
However, not all bathhouse attendants are girls of easy virtue. Sometimes girls are preferred to be hired because it would be uncomfortable for women to use the services of male bath attendants. At the same time, there may not be an intimate component - the attendants will show how to use the bath, make sure that visitors do not get sick in a barrel of hot water, add aromatic oils to the water, and give a massage.
Now most public baths in Japan (sento) are divided into male and female halves, although this was not always the case: over the centuries, the relevant laws were either approved or repealed. Sento may have large heated pools.
Many sento baths are forbidden to people with tattoos, as they may be suspected of belonging to the mafia. There are also separate establishments where foreigners are not welcome.

bath equality

In many European baths there is no division into male and female zones - everyone sits in the same room or splashes in the same pool.
In Germany, many baths are located in areas with thermal waters. Usually they are divided into two halves: one contains pools and water attractions, the other contains saunas and steam rooms. Swimwear and swimming trunks are only allowed in the pool area. And to come to the bath in a bathing suit is nonsense. On the doors of the room where it is customary to sit naked, the letters FFK - Freikörperkultur - "Free Body Culture" are usually written.
The most shy can wrap themselves in a cotton towel - the Germans do not approve of synthetics, believing that it negates the healing effect of the bath. But usually no one looks at anyone - everyone is equal in the bathhouse. Rather, they will look at the guest wrapped in a towel.
The whole family goes to the German baths, so teenagers, their parents, and very young children can be in the same steam room. Sometimes, however, "women's days" are arranged, when men are not allowed into the bath complex.
You can’t make noise in German baths - this prevents other guests from relaxing.
It is worth saying that in the XV-XVII centuries. in Rus', baths also practiced joint washing of men and women, and the imperial decree forbidding everyone to wash together was issued only under Catherine II in 1782. Prior to this, the decree of the Governing Senate of 1741 was not successful. Finally, this custom came to naught only in the era of Alexander I.

To the bath - for important contracts

In Finland, it is not customary to refuse an invitation to a sauna. There, as in Germany, they sit “in what the mother gave birth to”, and the status of a neighbor is not taken into account. There is even a sauna in the parliament building. It is said that until the 1980s, parliamentary meetings were held there on Thursdays. All consulates and embassies of Finland abroad have their own saunas.
So if there is a goal to sign an important contract with a Finn or discuss any problem, you will have to go to the sauna with him. It is there that the Finns, usually closed and not very fond of making contact, are liberated and willingly conduct difficult negotiations. Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari liked to discuss the most serious issues with foreign politicians in the sauna. All ministers and presidents sat at the same time, as expected, naked. And Nikita Khrushchev in 1960 had to steam in the sauna of the Finnish embassy for five hours until he and President Urho Kekkonen came to an agreement on important issues.
Families go to the sauna together, and in public saunas, men and women bathe separately. Many Finns are offended when they talk about intimate relationships in saunas, believing that this opinion came in the 70s from Germany.
There are even floating saunas in Finland, which are not recommended for people who are sensitive to rocking.

Gay saunas

In Sweden, for a long time there were special sauna-clubs for people with non-traditional orientation. In 1987 they were banned by the government, citing the spread of HIV infection, but in 2001 the ban was lifted. The authorities considered that during the ban there was neither a sharp increase in incidence rates, nor a sharp decrease in them. Another argument in favor of the permit was that promiscuity in random places carries a much greater risk.
In the USA, similar baths also existed and were banned in the mid-80s in New York (1985) and San Francisco (1984). In the UK, gay saunas are still functioning: the largest network is located in London and is called Chariots. They have swimming pools, steam rooms, massage rooms. Saunas of this network are open around the clock.
Similar establishments exist in many countries around the world. A few years ago, the BBC reported that in Rome, a famous gay sauna and a department of the Vatican side by side in a historic palazzo.

In 4 days in Finland, we saw as many saunas as we have probably never seen in our lives. Even in hotel rooms, along with a bath and shower, there were small saunas, to say nothing about hotel cottages.

The Finnish sauna is a dry heat bath, when the air in the room has low humidity (10-25%) and a high temperature in the range of 90-110 ° C. Finns visit the sauna every other day and this is in the order of things. The popularity of Finnish saunas has reached us, however, we copied only the form, forgetting about the content. Today I want to explain the main rules and explain why Natasha in the title photo is steaming incorrectly...

First, a few examples of saunas. Here is a roomy hotel option for general use:

2.

Compact option for a family:

3.

Today, the Finns are wildly popular black sauna - black saunas. This is something similar to a Russian bath:

4.

5.

Shared sauna in the hotel. Usually, either purely male or purely female groups go to the sauna. Although, according to hotel staff, often friendly companies steam all together:

6.

Private sauna in the cottage:

7.

Private saunas usually have outdoor jacuzzis. Unlike the Russian tradition of throwing yourself into an ice hole, the Finns prefer a lukewarm bath:

8.

So, an important rule of the Finnish sauna: in no case should you enter the sauna in edits, a swimsuit or a towel. Under no circumstances. For the Finns, this is bad manners, rudeness and violation of traditional values:

9.

The only thing that is allowed is to take a special piece of paper to lay under the ass:

10.

This is what a person in a Finnish sauna should look like!

It is also important to sit with your feet on a bench (ideally lying down) so that the body heats up evenly. Before visiting the steam room, you can lightly wash yourself in the shower, but be sure to wipe yourself dry. You can't splash water on the stove. If it is very dry, it is allowed to carefully water the wooden walls of the steam room:

11.

How do you feel about the sauna? Do you like to steam?

P.S. I want to announce a new section in my author's application "

There are more saunas in Finland than cars. They are in every residential building, office, government building. If for the Russians going to the bathhouse is an event, then for the Finns it is the same daily ritual as brushing your teeth or drinking coffee.

“Russian bath and Finnish sauna are one and the same,- Helena Autio-Meloni, Cultural Adviser of the Embassy of Finland in Moscow, debunks all the myths at once. - A dry Finnish sauna, as Russians imagine it, simply does not exist. When the first electric fireplaces appeared on the market in the seventies, they first replaced wood-burning stoves in saunas in Finland, and later they began to be sold in Russia. The Russians were happy to buy them, but they probably did not read the instructions or listen to the seller. After all, these electric stoves can and should be poured with water to form steam. What is a sauna without Loyly! So in Finnish the main thing in the sauna is called - steam, which occurs if you splash water on hot stones. Humidity and high temperature - this is a real Finnish bath!

Sauna artist Sami Hürskülahti also laughs at the Russian delusion: “You think that only you have a unique bath with a steam room, with beating with brooms, followed by diving into an ice hole or into the snow. The Finns believe that they invented this type of bath. And I saw a dry sauna only once - in Sweden.. The only difference between the Russian bath and the Finnish sauna, according to Sami, is that the Finns do everything quickly in the bath, and the Russians sit for hours: “In Finland, the sauna is a weekly and, for many, a daily ritual. In Russia, going to the bathhouse is perceived as a holiday. Here are the Russians and soar for five hours in a row. By the way, it's bad. Hair may fall out.

Where does homeland begin?

Finnish proverb says: "First build a sauna, then a house". According to the Finnish Sauna Association, there are 1.6 million saunas for the country's 5.5 million inhabitants. They are in every home, in office centers, government buildings, as well as in Finnish diplomatic missions. Even in the places where the military is deployed there is a sauna. For example, during the UN peacekeeping mission in Eritrea, the Finns rested in their own bathhouse. And in Kosovo, 20 saunas were built for 800 Finnish soldiers.

“This is a very old culture. Our people love the sauna in the blood. It is passed down from mother and father- explains the manager of tourism from Helsinki Liisa Renfors. - My first childhood memory: the whole family in the sauna - mother, father and older brother and sister, I'm three years old, and my father washes my hair ... "

Now Liisa lives in an ordinary apartment building in Helsinki. There are only two saunas located in the basement per 100 residents of the house, so the visit time must be booked in advance a year in advance. "I took time on Thursdays between 19:00 and 20:00" Lisa says. Such saunas are built in all residential buildings. They are called talosauna. There is another popular name - lenkkisauna, from the word Lenkki("jogging"). You can take a steam bath here in a quick way, after playing sports. Many Finns do this.

Rite of Purification

Juhani Raintinpää, director of a window and balcony door manufacturing and installation company, lives on the ninth floor of a 12-storey building in Lappeenranta. He did not book the sauna a year in advance. The bathhouse is heated there every day, while on Tuesday - a common women's day, on Wednesday - a men's day. Wednesday suits Juhani, but he gets real pleasure only in a bathhouse with a real wood-burning stove, in the forest, by the lake. “All members of the family gather at my sister's dacha by the lake Makhnalanselkya - 10 people. My sister and I have been accustomed to such a holiday since childhood. When we were little and lived with our parents in Tampere, the whole family also went to the sauna. They rubbed each other's backs, and then went to kahvit - this is how the Finns call coffee drinking after a sauna. Children - juice, adults - coffee. And everyone was happy.".

For decades, the sauna has been a place of not only physical, but also spiritual cleansing, liberation from the hustle and bustle. “For us, the sauna is a holy place where sins are washed away. All bad things go away, people take a steam bath in the form in which nature created them, therefore everyone is equal before God, Juhani continues. - I think that the sauna is the only truly democratic place in the world. A place for solving world conflicts, which, by the way, is actively used by our politicians. Sauna has a good effect on the psyche. Especially if you combine it with swimming in the lake.”.

“In the bath, I feel a connection with nature, with the highest, spiritual, Juhani says. - It is customary for us to take children with us to the steam room. And these naughty ones sit quietly on the floor, do not make noise and do not act up. They do not need to explain how to behave in the bath. Soul feel ".

Liisa Renfors believes that the most important thing in a sauna is to concentrate and keep quiet. “The philosophy of the sauna is that everyone should feel good and calm there, like in a church. You have to do what you feel. Some come to church for long services, while others will quietly enter, pray in a corner and leave. So is the sauna. I sit in a steam room in silence for 10 minutes, relaxing after a busy day. And this is enough to be alone with yourself. And there are people who spend an hour in the bath, take a steam bath in several visits..

To be born, wash and die

Until the beginning of the 20th century, most Finnish children were born in a sauna. Hot water, an atmosphere of calm, no germs - ideal conditions. Finnish President Urho Kekkonen, who led the country from 1956 to 1981, was born in the bathhouse. “Our grandmothers were relieved from the burden in saunas - it was normal,- says adviser Helena Autio-Meloni. - In the house that belonged to my mother-in-law, there is a bathhouse, which was built in the 19th century. She saw a lot - not only childbirth, but also funerals. The deceased was left in a cold sauna for three days before burial, and only then was they escorted on their last journey..

These pagan traditions persisted for a long time, because the Finns lived in isolation, it was a long way to the church. The tradition has survived to this day to prepare the bride for the marriage ceremony in the sauna. Before the wedding ceremony, the girl went to the sauna as a confession to wash away the temptations and thoughts of a past life. The pre-wedding bachelorette party almost always takes place in the bathhouse. In the northern regions of Finland, a trip to the sauna is made to the accompaniment of a Lapland drum. Finnish shaman healers kansanparantja who collect herbs and know conspiracies for all diseases, the sauna is considered the main remedy. It is no coincidence that there is a saying in Finland: “If alcohol, resin or sauna do not help, then the disease cannot be cured”.

Photo: Kari Ylitalo / visitfinland.com, Harri Tarvainen / visitfinland.com, Axiom Photographic / Legion-Media, Visitfinland.com (x3), Shutterstock

A well-known entrepreneur organizes "charitable" bathing days for migrants.

In the city of Helsinki, refugees can find refuge in the sauna of the famous Finnish entrepreneur and musician Kimmi Helistö. A businessman organizes free bath days for men living in his neighborhood at the immigration center. This is reported by the Helsingin Sanomat publication. The offer of Kimmy, who is a member of the city council, turned out to be unique, as he not only offered refugees from the Middle East to wash for free, but also invited them to visit the sauna with Finnish women free of charge. In his induction speech, he operated on such words as "brotherhood" and "friendship", which, in his opinion, exist in the sauna "during all these troubles." The statement of the musician-entrepreneur was immediately noticed in the Netherlands, where for the first time in the EU a community for the sexual education of refugees was created in the hope of instilling European moral principles in them. Until recently, people from Iraq went to the Finnish sauna to steam in a purely male team, but the photographer Ilvi Njokikien decided to introduce migrants to sexual tolerance by visiting the Helistö sauna with them. “Suddenly, I saw people carrying towels over their shoulders. I asked them where they were going. I was pointed to a nearby sauna. As a joke, they invited me to join them, and were very surprised when I agreed, ”said Nyokikien. The refugees were delighted with the half-naked woman, who first went with them to the shower, and then to the steam room. Refugees admitted that they had never been so hot in a bathhouse in their lives. And the Dutch woman said that she had heard a lot about the cultural traditions of Finland, when men and women take a steam bath together in the sauna. According to the woman, the refugees in the steam room behaved very friendly, laughed a lot and did not even refuse to be photographed. “I was surprised that they took me with them because I am a woman. However, I did not dare to completely remove my outer clothing, because I believed that such behavior could be considered offensive by Muslims, ”explained Nyokikien. She noted that all the men were in swimming trunks in the sauna. “They were singing and laughing all the time,” the lady added. The lady herself, who visits the sauna once a week, noted that for the first time she was so “hot” and “hard” at the same time, but she was satisfied with such an “interesting” joint visit to the steam room. The owner of the sauna noted that he allowed refugees to visit his institution under the auspices of the Red Cross in Finland, reports. He said that refugees always visit his sauna in swimming trunks and sing songs in Arabic while in the steam room. Kimmy noted that Finnish saunas "begin to steam as early as 20-30 degrees", but "Iraqi men wash each other in the Turkish hammam style, despite the fact that Turkish spa culture is very different from Finnish." According to him, the refugees "never had problems with several women who come to them in the common sauna."

In the city of Helsinki, refugees can find refuge in the sauna of the famous Finnish entrepreneur and musician Kimmi Helistö.

A businessman organizes free bath days for men living in his neighborhood at the immigration center. This is reported by the Helsingin Sanomat publication.

The offer of Kimmy, who is a member of the city council, turned out to be unique, as he not only offered refugees from the Middle East to wash for free, but also invited them to visit the sauna with Finnish women free of charge. In his induction speech, he operated on such words as "brotherhood" and "friendship", which, in his opinion, exist in the sauna "during all these troubles."

The statement of the musician-entrepreneur was immediately noticed in the Netherlands, where for the first time in the EU a community for the sexual education of refugees was created in the hope of instilling European moral principles in them.

Until recently, people from Iraq went to the Finnish sauna to steam in a purely male team, but the photographer Ilvi Njokikien decided to introduce migrants to sexual tolerance by visiting the Helistö sauna with them.

“Suddenly, I saw people carrying towels over their shoulders. I asked them where they were going. I was pointed to a nearby sauna. As a joke, they invited me to join them, and were very surprised when I agreed, ”said Nyokikien.

The refugees were delighted with the half-naked woman, who first went with them to the shower, and then to the steam room.

Refugees admitted that they had never been so hot in a bathhouse in their lives. And the Dutch woman said that she had heard a lot about the cultural traditions of Finland, when men and women take a steam bath together in the sauna.

According to the woman, the refugees in the steam room behaved very friendly, laughed a lot and did not even refuse to be photographed.

“I was surprised that they took me with them because I am a woman. However, I did not dare to completely remove my outer clothing, because I believed that such behavior could be considered offensive by Muslims, ”explained Nyokikien.

She noted that all the men were in swimming trunks in the sauna.

The lady herself, who visits the sauna once a week, noted that for the first time she was so “hot” and “hard” at the same time, but she was satisfied with such an “interesting” joint visit to the steam room.

The owner of the sauna said he allowed refugees to visit his establishment under the auspices of the Red Cross in Finland.

He said that refugees always visit his sauna in swimming trunks and sing songs in Arabic while in the steam room.

Kimmy noted that Finnish saunas "begin to steam as early as 20-30 degrees", but "Iraqi men wash each other in the Turkish hammam style, despite the fact that Turkish spa culture is very different from Finnish." According to him, the refugees "never had problems with several women who come to them in the common sauna."