The sauna year 2023 has been a success!

On 15 November the leaders, supporters and contributors of the sauna year met at a conference at Elamus SPA. The year dedicated to the sauna, sauna culture, customs, products, businesses, communities and leaders, and to everyone who has the sauna in their soul, has been a success. Over the year various sauna experiences have taken place across Estonia, sauna masters have been honoured, a sauna university has been organised and much more exciting besides.

The sauna year has greatly advanced sauna culture

The idea of a sauna year began in 2019, when Maaleht journalist Rein Sikk declared on the radio that there could be a themed year dedicated specifically to the sauna. The idea did not come to life immediately, but it stayed in the air and, through the cooperation of good people, came alive in 2023.

According to Raili Mengel, who has led the Estonian Rural Tourism association for 15 years, the association gave its heart to the sauna theme long ago – the Estonian Sauna Route had been created earlier, and the association has plenty of sauna fans who value sauna culture and introduce it to their visitors too. So at one entrepreneurs’ sauna training the idea was picked up, shoulders were put to the wheel and it was decided to call the sauna year into being. Here the chairwoman of the association’s board Raili Mengel stresses that it is especially important to start offering more guided sauna services, which could become Estonia’s Nokia.

The aim of the sauna year is to:

• Increase the turnover of sauna businesses
• Greater supply of / demand for a guided sauna experience
• Spreading and recording sauna culture and tradition
• Making the sauna more accessible and creating a sauna platform
• Offering sauna experiences to foreign guests

Why is the sauna important?

• The building register lists 100,100 saunas
• The sauna year’s website lists 29 types of sauna
• Around 600 sauna service providers operate across Estonia
• The sauna suits every season; it is especially popular in the low season
• The sauna is the most important additional service in tourism

Although the year is not over yet, the sauna year has already fulfilled its aim and greatly advanced sauna culture.

The Estonian smoke sauna was taken into the wider world by the film “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood”, which is a candidate for an Oscar. The short documentary “Saunapäev” and the student film “Sauna õndsus” were also completed.

Sauna themes reached reading enthusiasts too. Sauna-themed displays were set up in 60 libraries. Sauna stories that made it between covers: “365 küsimust” by Rein Sikk, “Saun. Ajalugu, kultuur, tervis, ehitus” by Urmas and Liisa Hõbepappel, Silja and Siim Nellis, “Hea enesetunne saunast. Saunafulness” by Carita Harju, “Sauna. The power of deep heat” by Emma O’Kelly. And two more sauna books are coming out soon!

The sauna was promoted virtually too – sauna articles, sauna games, sauna quizzes, 13 sauna videos, interviews and posts.

Sauna wisdom was passed on by the sauna university. From May to June 12 lectures took place. Ahto Kaasik spoke about the sauna in Estonians’ home history, Kaia-Kaire Hunt about health in the sauna, Marianne Ostrat and Anna Hints about the smoke sauna’s success on the world stage, Kristel Vilbaste about plants in the sauna, Jan Seepter about sauna rituals, Saunamaailm answered frequently asked sauna questions, Elis Seppius spoke about the sauna as a sanctuary of the body, Marju Kõivupuu about the sauna in the story of Estonians’ heritage culture, and Eda Veeroja about putting sauna lore to use in the present day.

Various sauna events took place. For example sauna marathons, music and summer festivals with saunas, guided saunas, and a national sauna day with the Finns.

The Estonian sauna is gaining popularity around the world

There were foreign guests at the 15 November event too. Risto Elomaa, president of the International Sauna Association ISA, had come from Finland, and by his own account he has been connected with the sauna all his life. The association’s aim is to share information about good saunas around the world through its channels, since it has contacts from New Zealand to the USA. There is certainly a wish to take sauna information to the USA, where the worldwide sauna congress takes place next year.

Risto said that promoting Estonian sauna culture actually has a longer history, and his cooperation with Estonia began when there was a wish to add the smoke sauna traditions of Old Võromaa to the UNESCO cultural heritage list. He explains that Finland does not have very good spas and that is why Finns gladly go to spas in Estonia. Foreign tourists visiting Finland are also recommended to go to Estonia for a sauna experience, because Estonia is close and the sauna experience stands out.

According to him, the sauna year has been very successful. In his view it is especially important to offer a system through which foreign visitors could find sauna service providers. A few years ago, according to Finns who love visiting Estonia’s public saunas, the problem was a lack of up-to-date information (for example about opening hours). This year he has not heard of such a problem.

Estonia has also done good work in spreading information about the smoke sauna. He pointed out that the Japanese are very well informed about the Estonian smoke sauna, have read the book about the sauna, and Japanese journalists have also visited Elamus SPA to get to know the saunas.

The study of sauna habits revealed quite a few interesting things

Elin Priks, the Estonian Rural Tourism Association’s sauna year project manager, said it has been a wildly good sauna year. In addition to the books, films and events mentioned above, an Estonia-wide study of sauna habits was carried out.

The most popular are home saunas, then country homes/summer cottages; people go to the sauna when visiting others, at a swimming pool or spa, at sports clubs, and least of all people go to a communal sauna. And the smaller the place people live in, the more often they go to the sauna.

The sauna has accompanied Estonians throughout history

Einike Sooväli, head of the Open Air Museum’s Multinational Estonia Centre, has gone to the sauna all her life. Her mother and father have told her that when she was born she was taken to the town sauna in a potato basket. To this day she does not let a single chance to go to the sauna pass by.

Einike believes that without the sauna Estonians would probably not have survived as a people nor lived through hard times. She told those present about Estonians’ old sauna traditions. Some picks from what Einike said:

• People have gone to the sauna all the time. A proper sauna was always considered to be the smoke sauna – only a fool lets warm air out through the chimney!
• There were many prohibitions and admonitions in the sauna. In the sauna you had to forget bad thoughts and speak only of good things. In villages it has been described how neighbours hated each other and went to court, but on the sauna bench they were always friends.
  Many mystical characters lived in the sauna, who were nevertheless not friendly. For example Sauna-Jaak, who pinched children when they cried. And if that did not work, he poured hot water over the child. The sauna spirit also lived in the sauna, and you always had to say hello to him.
  It was precisely because of these characters that children did not dare go near the sauna when it was not heated. And when they were asked to fetch something from the sauna, it always happened that Sauna-Jaak gave them a pinch.
• Health was also much restored in the sauna. And not only physically – many beliefs were connected with it too.
  If you put salt in the corners of the sauna, for example, no illness will come near. If you spat on the bench 3 times, you got rid of malaria. And the smoke was disinfecting, after all.
• If you spit on the bench 3 times, you get rid of malaria. Whisk with a birch whisk, but there must not be an anthill nearby, or you will get abscesses.
• There could be illnesses, but the smoke disinfected.
• On Thursdays a healing sauna was held, where bones and joints were kneaded. On Saturdays, however, a relaxing sauna.
• Women also gave birth in the sauna – the woman heated the sauna hot, put straw on the floor and gave birth to the child in the sauna. If a girl was born, she was pulled through a man’s trousers, so she would get a good husband. If a boy, through a woman’s shirt, so he would get a beautiful, robust bride. A girl’s washing water was thrown on the flowers, so she would become a beautiful girl. A boy’s water on the top of a big spruce or on the sauna roof, so he would become a tall, capable man.
• The sauna was denied to no one. If village beggars came, they had to be allowed into the sauna. That made the manor lords envious too, because they also wanted the sauna. But Estonians did not want them there. Once the girls are said to have let a manor lord into the sauna, poured water over him until he was red raw and run out themselves. The manor lord nearly gave up the ghost, but afterwards he pressed no more.
  In the sauna, however, all were equal – the masters of wealthy and poor farms alike, and parish beggars.
• The sauna was also a mystical place – a gate between this world and the beyond. Souls were often invited into the sauna and food was left there for them. Soul beggars also went round the saunas and were given offerings.
• Rites were performed in the sauna too, for example the love cake. Sorcery was also carried out – for example the girls sat in a circle, put grains and a rooster in front of them. Whoever the rooster first pecked grains in front of would be the first to marry.
• At the Open Air Museum there is a cross mark on the sauna doors – an old protective mark that kept the devil away. Girls made a cross mark and a circle around it in front of the door with their toe.
• After the sauna, groat porridge was eaten, beer was drunk and no more work was done. It was a relaxing day.

Sauna masters took Estonian sauna rituals onto the world map

Elamus SPA head of experiences Margit Kurn confirmed that this year’s sauna development has been mighty! She explains that when the idea was announced, she sought out the representatives of the Estonian Rural Tourism Association at the Tourest tourism fair and asked how the spa could help contribute to the sauna year.
Elamus SPA wished to honour the profession of sauna master even more, to help raise the popularity of sauna rituals and to put the Estonian sauna and sauna masters in the international picture. That got done!

The sauna theme was much discussed in the media, on the radio, on television and in the papers. One of the brightest memories was “Ringvaade”, for which an artistic sauna stove was even built.

She confirmed that young people are doing very well with the sauna! Elamus SPA has 9 sauna masters, all of them young people who are with the sauna heart and soul.

Young sauna masters Karl-Peeter Kangur and Johanna Jakobson also went to introduce Estonia at the Aufguss championship this year. Aufguss is an organisation uniting the world’s best spa and sauna centres, and sauna masters from 18 countries belong to it. Their role is to promote the world’s sauna cultures, introduce them and communicate with one another.

Estonia’s sauna masters could not yet compete this year, only present. The show was put together with the help of director Villiko Kruuse, and it told of a man who lives deep in Estonia’s primeval forest, loves nature and the sauna. But he felt that he was short of power. His plea for help was heard by a sauna angel, who through a rain incantation and with whisks gave the man power, and he became a sauna god.

The show was performed in a sauna holding 200 guests. The stove was 5 metres long and 1.9 metres wide. When the show ended, the audience rose to its feet and gave a stormy ovation. On the way out, too, they gave thanks with a handshake.

Next year Estonia will officially measure itself against other sauna masters. Together with the Estonian Rural Tourism Association an announcement will soon be issued that all Estonian sauna masters have the chance to come and learn the Aufguss technique, in order to go and represent Estonia next autumn.

Will there be enough sauna heat? There will! Tradition for motivation and sauna steam for fuel. Tammsaare, after all, has said that when people have been to the sauna together, they are their own people, almost friends – the sauna makes everyone alike.