Do you dare to imagine? Finland's national essence is sauna! Almost all Finns are enthusiasts of fever-level saunas. Finland, a small Nordic country,
In Finland, in addition to saunas in public and private homes, most companies and institutions equip their employees with saunas, even saunas in the president's office.
The Finnish origin of the sauna
Finland's relationship with saunas dates back many centuries. The word sauna is a transliteration of the Finnish word for "steam bath". In Finland, countless sauna-related songs, ballads and folk tales are widely recited.
Archaeological discoveries have found that saunas have appeared in Finland in finland in the 5th-8th centuries, dating back about 6,000 years.
At that time, the bathroom was a single room of a log structure, burning firewood in the stove, laying several layers of broken stones on it, and then boiling water when the stones were boiled red, and the smoke in the bathroom was immediately steaming, and people were sweating and drinking, and this bathing method was called "smoke sauna". It was all the rage as soon as it appeared. In some parts of Finland, the "smoke sauna" is still inherited today and has spread all over the world in the footsteps of the Finns.
In the 11th century, two different furnaces were built side by side, the sauna and cooking, the kitchen and the bathroom were combined, and cooking and sauna were not wrong.
By the end of the 18th century, "recessed" brick sauna stoves appeared, which had two or three separated sections, the lowest floor for burning firewood, the middle layer for laying small stones, and the upper floor was a flue with a control valve, which led to the roof and connected to the chimney. Buildings at the time were generally wooden structures, and this "built-in" brick stove, which reduced the occurrence of fires, was prevalent in the 19th century.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the factory began to mass-produce metal sauna stoves, and formed an emerging sauna stove industry. The hearth of this sauna stove is a separate chamber,
In the 1930s, the sauna stove, which used electricity as an energy source, was finally introduced. In Finland, finns are overjoyed by the mushrooming of public saunas. Thanks to the advancement of science and technology, the sauna stove is constantly updated, safe and convenient, making the sauna penetrate into the lives of urban people with unprecedented depth and breadth.
Today, most of the newly completed noble houses and hotel rooms have a "mini" sauna next to the bathroom. Finns' sauna complex often has tourists who mistake the Finns for a nationally proud "Nokia" for a Japanese brand, and the locals mostly laugh it off tolerantly, and assuming that someone talks about the sauna, it will be considered an offense.
Saunas are inextricably linked to the entire life course of Finns
According to legend, the sauna was originally a religious ritual in which the oldest member of the family sprinkled water on the baby in the sauna after birth and named the baby, which later evolved into a baptism in a church.
After giving birth, the mother and the newborn spend a week in the sauna before the baby is solemnly taken out to meet the father.
Long ago, when Finns were dying, cleansing was often done in saunas. It can be said that saunas are inextricably linked to the entire life course of Finns.
Families with generations in the same house are generally in the order of men and women and children. On the farm, it is usually the farmer and the male helpers who go into the bath after a day of field work, and then it is the turn of the hostess and the female helpers to appear in the public sauna.
People are very relaxed in the sauna, but it does not mean that the skeleton is wandering, and even children are repeatedly warned not to make noise, play, and grimace. There is an old Finnish proverb: "In the sauna you are like in the church". However, when the sauna enters a foreign land, it is somewhat covered with pornography.
Before the sauna, people untie their clothes, shower first, and then go naked into the 80-100 degrees Celsius sauna, spread the towel on the bench, and then sit on the towel. This is done both for hygiene and to prevent the bench from overheating and injuring the skin.
During the sauna, the bathers are not covered in the "steamer" like steamed buns, and many people will frequently enter and leave the sauna!
Usually steamed for 10 minutes, then jumped into the cold river to swim, then came back to steam, steamed for a while and then went back to swim.... If you are tired, you can rest or sleep in the living room, and there are usually beds in the chalet.
Sauna, for Finns, means a lot!
There is a legend in Finland that on the first day of the new year, if the smoke in the sauna rises earlier than the sun, it indicates that the wind and rain will be smooth in the coming year, the six animals will flourish, and the grain will be abundant. In Finland, if your negotiator or business partner invites you to the sauna, it's almost as grand as inviting you to dinner.
Not only that, but Finns know the medical value of saunas so well that they always say:
In short, the Finnish obsession with saunas has reached an unparalleled level. Finns have an old adage: born in a sauna, die in a sauna!
I remember a painter once said: It is better to eat without meat than to live without bamboo. If they had changed finns, they would have said this: it is better to eat without meat than to live without a sauna.