Afinnity: Finnish-Americana

"Two places are holy-the church and the sauna."
-Finnish folk saying

"Sauna" can be used as a both a verb or a noun. It is also one of the few Finnish loan words used in other languages. The ubiquity of the sauna in Finnish culture is underscored by the statistic that one in three Finns has one and public saunas abound.

The sauna itself is a room which contains a fireplace over which a pile of rocks can be heated, either with a wood fire or, more often these days, by electricity. The room contains wood benches made of birch or poplar for the sauna-bathers to either sit or lie down on. Since heat rises, hardy folks will choose a higher bench, conceivably demonstrating their sisu, a type of Finnish determination. As water is thrown onto the rocks from a ladle, steam is produced. This steam, which has a mysterious quality about it, is called löyly, a word that actually predates the existence of the sauna itself, as it can also mean "soul," as in the human soul. This hints at the magic the sauna is imbued with.

Leafy birch twigs, known as vihta, may be used to lightly slap at the skin to improve circulation. A temperature of about 175 ºF and relative humidity of about 10 percent is said to make for a very pleasant experience. The sauna is usually taken at a leisurely pace, alternating with a shower in the cooling room, a swim in a stream, or, in the winter, even a quick dip in the chilly waters in a hole dug in the ice of a frozen lake.

The Sauna in Finnish Literature

While Finns did not invent the sauna, it remains a staunch component of Finnish identity. It is mentioned throughout the national epic, the Kalevala.

As women routinely gave birth in the sauna up until the 1930's, runo 50 of the Kalevala depicts the Finnish folk version of the Virgin Mary, Marjatta, being turned away from the sauna at the time of labor and being forced to make do with a horse breathing steam over her, in a parallel to the holy infant being born in a manger. And Aleksis Kivi's famous novel, Seven Brothers, contains sauna scenes.

The Spirit of the Sauna

In folk belief, a saunatonttu, or sauna elf, resides in each sauna. In certain parts of Finland, the spirit of the sauna was greeted before entering for bathing. On special days of the year, such as kekri in early November or at Shrovetide, it was believed that spirits of kinfolk bathed in the sauna. They were not to be disturbed.

People also watched for sauna omens. Some Finns would climb on the roof of a sauna on New Year's Eve and interpret various noises as a system of divination.

The sauna was also a place for healing. As mentioned earlier, women once gave birth in the sauna. Elias Lönnrot, the compiler of the runos, was a physician who noted that the sauna as a place of healing is attested to by the many mentions of it in the Kalevala. Practices such as cupping or blood-letting were routinely performed in the sauna as well. As the oft-repeated folk saying goes, "If sauna, alcohol, and tar won' t help, that's the end."

Benefits of the Sauna

Though little scientific evidence exists on the health benefits of the sauna, it is generally thought to
* Help release toxins by the mechanism of sweating
* Improve circulation
* Loosen tight muscles
* Cause weight-loss (due of loss of hydration while sweating, but this is only temporary!)

The subjective feeling during and after a sauna, however, cannot be matched. Feelings of relaxation, the smoothing out of stresses, and a sense of near-nirvana can all be achieved, in this writer's opinion, within the steamy confines of the Finnish sauna.

Perhaps the best known contest in Finnish history can be found in Runo 3 of the nation's epic poem, the Kalevala. Here, master magician and sage Väinämöinen has attracted the jealous attention of the younger Joukahainen of Lapland, who challenges him to a duel. But this is no ordinary duel with swords. It is a singing duel. Prowess is defined as wielding the best magical words and incantations. Väinämöinen wins handily, and an angry Joukahainen draws his sword. But no worries. Väinämöinen quickly sings his arrogant competitor neck-deep into a marsh. Joukahainen begins to desperately bargain with the older man. Finally, after Joukahainen has promised his sister, Aino, in marriage to Väinämöinen upon promising his sister Aino in marriage (and we learn later that Aino does not exactly appreciate this), the master magician frees the upstart.

International competition is nothing new to Nordic sportspeople. There are skiing, strongmen, swimming and skating (ice hockey.) Let's look at some other competitions the Finns are famous for.

She's On His Back Again

Some would say that Eero Pitkänen must have been hallucinating when he came up with the idea of a 250-plus meter race track, with water obstacles and hurdles, being run by couples, the wife being carried on the back of the husband. Pitkänen did in fact dream this contest up. He famously took a nap while he was trying to brainstorm an idea that would bring folks from all around to visit his village's summer marketplace. Thus in 1992, Pitkänen, the cultural secretary for the town of Sonkajärvi, envisioned the contest that would draw competing couples. The first World Championship was held in 1996.

Odd as it may seem, in the same area of Finland but back the nineteenth century, robber bandit Rosvo Ronkainen had a man prove his mettle by running through the woods with a 150-pound bag of rye strapped to his back. Once this man was officially accepted into Ronkainen's band of miscreants, the men raided villages and made off with other men's wives hastily slung over their shoulders.

Today, the spirit of the Eukonkanto (wife carrying) games is one of gentle and mischievous amusement. The rules state that all participants must have fun. The winners, of course, are the couple who complete the course in the least amount of time. No matter how swiftly you run, dropping your wife will cost you points. The official rules also state that "the wife to be carried may be your own, the neighbor's or you may have found her further a field," and the minimum weight to be carried is 49 kilos. Anorexia is not encouraged in Finland. There are four official positions for carrying the wife: traditional piggyback, wife dangling upside down on the husband's back, wife slung over the husband's shoulder, or wife carried across the husband's shoulders. However, couples are also free to create their own styles. Although competitors come as far as from the United States, it is Estonia that holds the record for the most wife-carrying titles won.

Air Guitar. Not Just for Teenage Boys

Since 1996, Oulu, Finland, has been the home of the Annual Air Guitar World Championship contest. Air guitar, in case you're wondering, is the pretend instrument we use when we are imagining ourselves playing an electric guitar. Performances on air guitar feature exaggerated hand movements and can be accompanied by lip-synching and even head-banging.

Air guitarists have lofty goals. The World Championships, the official web site tells us, were founded on a peace ideology. It seems that no person in the act of playing air guitar can simultaneously be engaged in anything evil, and the purpose of the contest-yet to be achieved-is to have everyone, all the world over, play air guitar at the same time for peace.

The official rules for air guitar competitions have much in common with figure skating. They use the 6.0 scoring system, and the jury often consists of famous musicians or music critics. And the prize? The title and a real guitar, called a Flying Finn. Can't get much better than that!

From 1996 to 2000, the world title-holders are all Finns. But competition is fierce, and in the past few years there have been winners from the USA, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Japan. Competitors also take stage names, like the infamous Björn Türoque (pronounced "Born To-Rock.")

Air guitar is so highly regarded in Finland that there is a "virtual air guitar" exhibition at the Heureka Science Centre in Vantaa. Students from the Helsinki University of Technology developed a system in which the air guitarist simply puts on bright orange gloves and, lo and behold, real guitar sounds come screeching out of the atmosphere. This is such a popular exhibition that it became a permanent exhibit in 2007 and the virtual air guitar is played about 5000 times each month.

Getting a Kick Out of Boot Throwing

In saappaanheitto men, women, and children compete separately in each tossing a Nokia boot into an official throwing sector. (Did you think Nokia made only cell phones? The company made rubber boots first. And this sport is also related to cell phone-throwing competitions.) The men throw a size 43 boot, the women a size 38, and youngsters also throw a size 38. The boot being thrown must not be altered in any way, and the leg of the boot must be straight while the footwear is airborne. This sport enjoys both national championships and world championships.

2006-Finland Finally Wins Eurovision

Finland rocks! A perennial loser in the televised Eurovision Song Contest that rewards sappy ballads and innocuous pop music, Finland began competing in 1961. Finland never once made the top five, and on three occasions the singers actually returned home with zero points. Ouch! In 2006, the Finns were determined to make the outcome different. Voting on their cell phones, they picked the musicians who would represent them this go-round: Lordi, a death metal band. Lordi's lead singer, Mr. Lordi, a.k.a. Tomi Putannsuu, is an Arctic Laplander who is never seen without his rubber fright mask and a Latex outfit that on stage and on cue, sprouts wings. The rest of the band dresses as ghouls, and fireworks are a big part of the show. A Finnish grassroots movement was born with the goal of funding the pyrotechnics bill for the performance, which was shown live from Athens, Greece, in May, 2006.

Lordi performed their hit, "Hard Rock Hallelujah," and the Finns were ecstatic when the metal band took home the top prize and made history. No longer would the Finns come in last! Finland celebrated by renaming the Rovaniemi (the Arctic Circle hometown of Lordi). Sampo Square became Lordi Square.