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As
early as I can remember, our family’s Christmas began in the smooth and gentle
löyly of our home sauna.
Löyly is if you do not happen to know the unique and remarkable combination of heat, steam and ventilation of the Genuine Finnish Sauna - as well as a little drop of magic. It is a secret of the Sauna Spirit.
The Finnish Sauna is over 2000 years old, may be even older. I thank my ancestors for this heavenly heritage of mine.
You might have heard about the Finnish national epic, Kalevala, which with its 23 000 verses is the world’s largest collection of narrative poems based on traditions of Finns, as well as the Kanteletar, a collection of 13 000 verses of lyrical ancient Finnish songs.
Poems and song lyrics in those Finnish literature treasures describe in many occasions the sauna löyly, sauna traditions, sauna magic, sauna healing and ancient religion related with sauna.
I remember well when our mother told us how to behave in Sauna. “You must honor the Sauna Spirit’s environment with quiet manors and let your mind relax.” Since from my childhood I have found my peace in the warmth of the Sauna and in its caressing löyly. When it is at its best the löyly touches your body like your loving mothers smooth healing hand or your lovers’ gentle kiss...
One
calls his creator in Kalevala: “Come now, God, into löyly”. Löyly
in this case means the spirit instead of the heat, steam and ventilated air.
Ancient Finnish families called their oldest living male Ukko. Ukko is your
supreme God and your creator in Kalevala poems. I would be very moved if
somebody would call me: ”Come now, Ukko, into the Löyly”.
I remember well my father using very often the old Finnish proverb: “If Sauna, Booze or Tar do not heal, the sickness will kill."
For us children, my sisters, brothers and our friends, sauna was the place we heated up in order to warm up ourselves for swimming in the cold Finnish lakes, jumping in the hole made in the ice of the lake in winter, or rolling in the snow. I remember the excitement we had one Christmas making angel figures on the soft snow surface between the sauna’s warm löyly.
During my 22 years of life in Canada, when visiting saunas around in North America, I have wondered how on earth people call their dry sauna a Finnish Sauna. I do not feel comfortable in over 100°C dry heat. In one of those dry saunas I burned my heels and toes, needed to see a doctor who diagnosed a first-degree burn. Dry heat closes the pores and does not let your body to perspire, which is the main purpose why we, Finns, take the sauna. When I asked why one had few stones in his heater, the funniest answer I received was “For decoration”!
At Christmas time in Finland we bake a 12 kg ham “kinkku” in the equivalent of 100°C sauna heat for eight hours. For the ham we do not pour löyly, as it cooks better without it. When I sit in North American dry heat saunas, the poor ham comes always in my mind.
One
other day my daughter, Liisa, from Montréal, told me that when she was going
out early days for parties in Finland all her girlfriends took a sauna with a
smooth löyly in order to make them self-beauty. She told me that after
the löyly her face and body are blooming, natural fresh and rosy.
You know Finns use a “vihta” or “vasta”, as the they call their bath-whisks, to boost up perspiration. The Finns tie a bouquet of birch twigs to make the bath-whisks, which gives a wonderful fragrance when the leaves are bruised while the “vihta” is hit all over the perspiring body. The blood circulation is boosted and all the toxins are released from the perspiring body.
Last summer in Finland, by the gorgeous lakeside, my grand-daughter, Elina, from Montréal, found her love for the “Finnish Sauna”.
One morning we were pouring water on the stove stones and whipping each other with the newly made fresh vasta. Elina said to me: “Grandpa, when I get older I will have my own Finnish Sauna, just like this one. I have found my Finnish roots here.” And believe me, this young Canadian beauty knows the löyly.
So, from my childhood Christmas Sauna I remember well how after a few sessions of löyly alternated with rolling in the snow our mother and father washed our hair and back. Then we, kids, needed to wash ourselves as well as we could; our nose, ears, cheeks, arms, belly button, legs and our more private parts. After all that hard washing our mother poured one more bucket of very cool refreshing water over us. After the Sauna and vigorously toweling ourselves dry we put on our new clean clothes and the excitement of the Christmas was on!
That’s almost all about the Christmas Löyly I remember - the Finnish Sauna - My Love.
By
the way listen I even built a sauna on my boat and…
Hey fellows don’t interfere I tell you…
Perhaps I can remember more about Löyly, which the magical Sauna Spirit invented, the fellow friend of Santa Claus both of them from Finnish origin. Please call me, I will tell you more…
Happy Löyly regards and
merry, merry, merry Christmas Sauna,
Sauna Pekka
