Released in the 1920s an encyclopedia called ‘Pieni Tietosanakirja’ defined the sauna as a building where one can bathe and sweat in hot and steamy air, by throwing water onto a stove filled with rocks (Särkikoski 2012). According to the encyclopedia, sauna was categorized as one of the bath types that serve medical and cleansing purposes (Särkikoski 2012). Sauna has also been described as a high-level technical solution for a cold climate, such as in Finland, as the heat in the sauna is effectively and economically achieved and maintained (Särkikoski 2012). Sauna is a place, where one should not speak loudly or move around, especially around the hot stove, from which ‘löyly’, a cloud of steam, is created (Heinonen & Peltonen 2013; Turun Sanomat 6/2015). ‘Löyly’ is the central component of the Finnish sauna described by Heinonen & Peltonen (2013) as follows: “Löyly is the rush of hot steam that the stones in the stove instantly produce, as one pours water over them every now and then when enjoying the sauna bath”.
3.3.1 Sauna Types
Until World Wars one and two smoke saunas were favored, especially in the countryside (Särkikoski 2012; Turun Sanomat 6/2015), and according to Mather & Kaups (1963) in 1937 around 80 per cent of Finnish farms had a sauna. In the countryside sauna was and still is usually a detached and single-storey building with two rooms: one for bathing and the other for dressing, although the structure and size of each sauna may vary depending on its function and the size of the family (Mather & Kaups 1963). The room for bathing typically has bench seating, ‘lauteet’, erected four to five feet above the floor, where sauna bathers either sit or lie down to enjoy the
‘löyly’ steam (Mather & Kaups 1963). People with Finnish origins living in the rural Karjala
region called sauna ‘kyly’ (Vuorenjuuri 1967).
After the two World Wars, saunas with chimney flues become more popular than smoke saunas due to commercialization, new consumption behavior and the emergence of factory-made saunas that were cheaper than smoke saunas (Särkikoski 2012; Turun Sanomat 6/2015). Mass production of electric saunas commenced in the 1950s, yet the real revolution in electric saunas took place in the 1970s as construction companies started to equip apartments with electric saunas (Suomen Saunaseura ry). As a result, in the 1980s the chairman of Suomen Saunaseura ry, Juhani Peräsalo, called for the preservation of traditional sauna types arguing that electric saunas will strip off the twilight ambiance and heating rituals from sauna culture (Särkikoski 2012). According to Särkikoski (2012), a heated room cannot be called sauna unless it is within a prescribed range of humidity and temperature: referring to the former chairman of Suomen Saunaseura ry, Juhani Peräsalo, Särkikoski presents the norm of humidity as 40-70g/kg and a norm of temperature as 80-100 °C. However, according to a study of apartment saunas conducted by Tampereen Teknillinen Korkeakoulu (Tampere University of Technology) in 1987 (Särkikoski 2012), sauna culture was altered to fit the urban context as the modern urban sauna bather’s preferences deviated from previous ideals: only eight per cent of the respondents took a sauna at 90-100 degrees and as many as a fifth of the respondents preferred their sauna bath to be heated to 60-65 degrees.
As a result of urbanization, after the World Wars the concept of taking a sauna was redefined, as the sauna bath became more individualized. The notion of ‘family sauna' emerged referring to saunas at home, inside saunas built in multi-family houses and summer cottage saunas (Särkikoski 2012). Shared saunas in apartment houses were rare until the 1950s but as more people moved to the cities the number of cellar saunas in blocks of flats started to increase (Särkikoski 2012). These cellar saunas were often regarded as cramped, insipid and lacking the authentic sauna atmosphere and thus communal saunas were mostly set up in at swimming pools (Särkikoski 2012). In his book released in 1960s Vuorenjuuri (1967) argued that saunas were relatively and unduly modest and cramped located e.g. in the outermost location of summer cottage courtyard and called for larger scales and special characteristics for Finnish saunas. According to Vuorenjuuri (1967), Finnish saunas had followed the pattern of smallness and modesty due to beliefs and ideals shaped by commercial discourses and competition. Särkikoski (2012) notes that over long period of time saunas in apartment houses have shifted location from cramped cellars to more open top floors until the 2010s.
Industrial institutions had used saunas to increase collective hygiene and the wellbeing of their workers for decades, whereas companies and organizations did not begin to seek to improve their image and internal staff relations by utilizing companies’ in-house saunas until the 1970s (Särkikoski 2012). However, at the same time, privately-owned public saunas suffered a decline in popularity, as saunas in conjunction with communal swimming baths, companies’ in-house saunas, in-home saunas and apartment block saunas became more popular, due to increased material welfare (Särkikoski 2012). By the 1960s there were 6.5 persons per sauna in Finland (Mather & Kaups 1963). From the 1960s to the beginning of the 1990s there were numerous attempts to reclaim public saunas, but interest in public saunas had disappeared and municipalities were not eager to financially support privately-owned public saunas (Särkikoski 2012).
3.3.2 Sauna - an Essential Part of Summer Cottage Life
Summer cottage culture cannot be defined by consumption of specific goods only, but instead it can be perceived as a special place of consumption (Heinonen & Peltonen 2013). Although
summer cottages are common to all Nordic countries, Finland is probably the leading country in when it comes to the number of summer cottages (Heinonen & Peltonen 2013). According to Heinonen & Peltonen (2013), there are approximately 550,000 summer cottages in Finland. The most desirable ones are situated near a lake or by the sea. The era between the 1950s and the 1970s was the golden age for summer cottages during which the number of summer cottages quadrupled (Särkikoski 2012). However, due to a rapid increase in lakeside summer cottage saunas, the Finnish government passed a law to restricting building near the shoreline, in 1969 (Särkikoski 2012).
Finnish people tend to use summer cottages as often as they can, during weekends and especially during summer vacations (Heinonen & Peltonen 2013). Heinonen & Peltonen (2013) suggest that it is common for most summer cottages to include a sauna, which is usually detached from the main building. According to Heinonen & Peltonen (2013), despite and perhaps due to post–World War 2 urbanization, the number of summer cottage owners has grown steadily. During the 1960s, owning a summer cottage was somewhat of a luxury, but since the sixties it has become more and more widespread (Heinonen & Peltonen 2013). Hence taking a sauna in the countryside has remained a special characteristic of the Finnish culture, although people also take a sauna bath in urban homes (Heinonen & Peltonen 2013). Sauna is also an essential part of the Finns’ holidays such as Christmas and Midsummer, which are often celebrated at their summer cottages (Turun Sanomat 6/2015). For example, during the feast of Midsummer the sauna is specially decorated with birch twigs and saplings, and filled with beliefs and traditions that spring from the sauna mythology (Turun Sanomat 6/2015).
Heinonen & Peltonen (2013) describe consumption in summer cottages as anti-modern with a tendency to go back towards childhood, and present summer cottages as spaces free from technology and other usual in-home activities. These arguments are rationalized by the backwardness of summer cottage equipment leading to old-fashioned activities such as reading and fishing (Heinonen & Peltonen 2013). Heinonen & Peltonen (2013) suggest that as summer cottages are usually more primitive than homes, and often lacking running water, taking a sauna might be the only place to get clean. The notion of childhood in connection with summer cottages is based on the fact that many summer cottages have served as homes for either one of the parents
or grandparents (Heinonen & Peltonen 2013). As summer cottages tend to be primitive and often lacking common household technology, taking a sauna as a summer cottage activity remains, expressing a return to the primitive and an escape from the modern world (Heinonen & Peltonen 2013).
Referring to a survey carried out in May 2015 by the market research company Taloustutkimus, and commissioned by the Association for Finnish Work, Suomalaisen Työn Liitto (Turun Sanomat 7/2015), Finns would rather warm up a sauna than clean their home. According to the survey of over a thousand participants, almost one in four Finns named heating an outdoor sauna as their favorite summertime chore. The study also revealed how gender roles are embedded in household chores: men were found to prefer ‘manly’ and more physical activities such as chopping wood and warming a sauna, whereas women preferred lighter work such as picking berries and weeding the flowerbeds (Turun Sanomat 7/2015).