| THE SAUNA After the newcomers had moved to their farm homes and the most necessary repairs had been made, a sauna was constructed. Usually this was accomplished during the first year of residence. To the Finn a sauna was not a luxury but a necessity. It has been a part of Finnish life from time immemorial. The sauna was a small wooden building originally located far enough from the house so as not to be a hazard in case of fire. It contained a small dressing room and a steam room with a stone fireplace of “kiuas”. Here, also, was a wooden platform on which to relax while enjoying the effects of the steam. A few wide steps served as bleacher-like seats for the bathers as well as for access to the platform. The fireplace was heated until the farthest stones sizzled when water was poured on them. The water was heated in containers on top of the “Kiuas” or by piped heat from the fireplace to a water tank beside it. Cold water was carried into the steam room in pails or old milk cans. After the fire and smoke died down and only a big bed of red coals remained in the fireplace, the sauna was ready for use. The higher on the steps one sat, the hotter, with the platform being the hottest place. Basins were used for bathing. To create the steam, water was thrown on the hot rocks with a dipper. Children of these first Finnish families can still remember how, dressed in their night clothes after a hot sauna, they ran to the house and never felt the cold, even during the coldest winter weather. Pliant switches of birch, chestnut or maple were cut from a tree and bound, with the leaves left on them, to form a whisk or “vihta”. Fragrant cedar was preferred but little was available here. The switch was soaked in warm water then slapped over the body to improve the circulation. With very few exceptions, the farmhouses of that period had no bath rooms. Friends exchanged visits, trying out each other’s saunas and enjoyed coffee with “pullaa” or “nisua” afterward. Some of the Yankee neighbors who were invited to share the sauna visits, learned to enjoy the merits of the steam bath. In later years, with electricity and plumbing available, many built a more convenient sauna within the home. Usually the “kiuas” or stove that was installed in the later saunas was of iron, topped with a sheet-metal enclosure which was filled with rocks. These stoves were smaller and could be heated more efficiently and without smoking up the steam room. Hot and cold running water was an added convenience in most of the later saunas. The rest of the sauna remained much the same as in the original building. |