Traditional sauna practices
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Practitioners and people who know the tradition well
Traditional sauna practices (perinnesaunottaminen) is an umbrella term for various communal sauna rituals and therapeutic sauna practices based on spiritual and folk medicinal cultural heritage. Their modes of practice, rituals and conceptions of health and illness reach deeply into the Baltic Finnic folk tradition.
Traditional sauna practices are carried out in Finland by a wide range of actors. Practitioners range from private individuals interested in folklore who occasionally organise traditional sauna rituals, to associations, communities and businesses that arrange theme-based sauna events particularly during annual festivities, as well as professionals who specialise in therapeutic sauna practices and sauna rituals based on folk traditions, such as bridal saunas and seasonal ritual saunas.
The association Perinnesaunottajat ry (The association of Traditional Sauna Healers), established in 2020, had approximately 50 members at the beginning of 2026. Its members are trained professionals of intangible sauna culture and therapeutic sauna traditions, referred to as traditional sauna practitioners or traditional sauna healers. The association Taivaannaula ry, founded in 2007, had approximately 110 members in early 2026. Its aim is to preserve and sustain Finnish traditional culture and spiritual heritage, including the protection of sacred natural sites recognised in folk tradition. The total number of private individuals practising traditional sauna rituals is difficult to estimate.
Practising of the tradition
Traditional sauna practices can be carried out in many different ways. They may include sauna ceremonies and rituals connected to life-cycle transitions, drawing on Baltic Finnic folklore. The best-known example is the bridal sauna organised as part of pre-wedding celebrations, rooted in Finnish-Karelian wedding sauna traditions. The sauna is decorated with flowers and greenery, and the bride is given a designated place on the benches as well as a special ritual whisk. Various purification rites are performed during the sauna, guided by songs and incantations. Traditional sauna practices can include rituals associated with all stages of life and may be carried out both privately and professionally.
Another category consists of sauna programmes connected to the annual cycle of festivities, based on traditional seasonal customs. These practices reflect an understanding of the spiritual dimension of the sauna and respect for its sacredness. Major ritual sauna events in the annual cycle include the Christmas sauna, Ascension sauna, Midsummer sauna and Kekri (harvest festival) sauna. Ritual elements such as incantations and chants are part of these practices. Many communities interested in cultural and spiritual heritage celebrate the annual cycle through sauna rituals. These festive saunas often function as rites of transition. For example, Kekri or Christmas saunas may take place during daytime, and the sauna space is decorated, beer may be poured on the hot stones instead of water for throwing löyly, and the process proceeds with songs and incantations. In some cases, omens are also interpreted as part of the ritual.
A third category consists of therapeutic sauna practices rooted in folk healing traditions. These may include whisk treatments (vihtakylvetys), the use of peat, medicinal plants, traditional remedies and water, as well as healing through sound such as incantations and singing. Other forms of folk healing, such as bone-setting and massage, may also be incorporated. Traditional practices such as washing with birch whisk and cupping therapy may also be included.
Those practising and maintaining traditional sauna rituals share an interest in roots, nature, communal practices, oral poetry, handicrafts, folk belief, folk medicine and folklore. These practices combine environment, culture, art and well-being. Sauna songs, poems and incantations, as well as rituals connected to life transitions and seasons, sustain an ancient verbal and ritual tradition that links well-being and health to culture, community and environment. Traditional sauna practices may be understood as an ecocultural phenomenon, reflecting an interdependent relationship between human values, ways of thinking and behaviour, and ecological systems.
The background and history of the tradition
Sauna bathing is believed to have spread to the area of present-day Finland in prehistoric times, several thousand years ago. The earliest saunas were tent-like pit saunas, possibly used for spiritual purification. Log-built smoke saunas began to be constructed during the Iron Age, approximately 1500–2000 years ago. Initially built partially into the ground, they later became fully above-ground structures. Smoke saunas remained the dominant sauna type until the 1930s.
The sauna served both as an everyday working space and a sacred space. It was used for curing meat, malting grain, brewing beer, washing laundry and making soap. Its flexible structure allowed for multiple uses. At the same time, it functioned as a sacred place where people were born and the deceased were prepared, making it a central location for rites of passage, healing and magic.
Finnish sauna culture and folk medicine have deep prehistoric roots. Sauna functioned as a liminal space of the household, a place between worlds. Folk saying “if sauna, whisk and spirits do not help, death will follow” (“Jos ei sauna, vihta ja viina auta, perii hauta”) reflects the centrality of sauna in healing. Folk healers were consulted when self-care was insufficient. In addition to bathing, the sauna has also served as a place for healing and washing, for celebrating the stages of the human life cycle and the turning points of the year, and for promoting the well-being of both individuals and communities in numerous ways.
Over time, the sauna has also provided employment for many people, as already in the Middle Ages a distinct profession of sauna attendants began to emerge, working for example in public urban bathhouses. Today, there is an active network of traditional sauna practitioners in Finland, along with other professionals providing sauna and washing services, who through their activities maintain and develop therapeutic sauna culture based on folk traditions.
Since the nineteenth century, Finnish researchers from various disciplines have collected and recorded oral tradition related to Finnish folk culture and folk medicine. In these accounts, the sauna plays a central role. This work has helped preserve orally transmitted knowledge based on nature, traditional healing methods, beliefs and incantations, which form the foundation of contemporary traditional sauna practices. Whisk treatment appears both in oral traditions concerning folk healing and in folk poetry. Historically, whisk treatment functioned as a purification ritual through which a young woman’s prospects for marriage were restored if they had been spoiled by ill-wishers or jealousy. Sauna bathing has also been part of courtship rituals, love magic and practices aimed at awakening desire. Women’s love incantations were intended either to attract the attention of men or to increase one’s own sexuality and attractiveness (Piela 1990). The transformation of Finland from an agrarian to an industrial society accelerated during the decades between the World Wars. This societal change, together with the rapid urbanisation following the wars, altered not only people’s worldview but also Finnish sauna culture. As urbanisation progressed, saunas were increasingly built as part of residential buildings rather than as separate yard buildings. Stoves changed from wood-burning to increasingly electric ones, and the number of saunas grew. Electric lighting and stoves changed the atmosphere of sauna bathing, which also became more commonplace. At the same time, public healthcare replaced previously dominant folk medicine and traditional treatments. From the mid-twentieth century until the early 2000s, the physical aspects of sauna bathing, meaning relaxation and washing, were emphasised. The Saturday sauna retained its position as the common bathing day and a cornerstone of Finnish sauna culture, but the spiritual dimension of sauna and its sacred character were largely forgotten. The understanding of the sauna’s role in maintaining health and well-being became narrower, focusing primarily on physical and social aspects rather than a holistic perspective. The recent spiritual revival of Finnish sauna culture over the past decade has also included the re-emergence of sauna-related spiritual traditions and therapeutic sauna culture.
Sauna culture in Finland was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020. The nomination was prepared by the Finnish Sauna Society in cooperation with sauna communities from across Finland and the Finnish Heritage Agency. Traditional sauna practitioners were also involved in the process.
The transmission of the tradition
Finland has an active network of traditional sauna practitioners, as well as other professionals offering sauna and washing services, who through their work and by sharing traditions ensure the preservation, maintenance and transmission of cultural heritage.
Perinnesaunottajat ry revives, revitalises and develops traditional therapeutic sauna culture and sauna rituals and ceremonial programmes based on spiritual heritage. The association also studies, maintains, documents and develops intangible sauna culture and the sauna’s spiritual heritage, including nature-based folk healing skills and sound healing based on runic singing.
Traditional sauna practitioners lead communal sauna programmes at both public and private events, organise therapeutic sauna programmes, train new practitioners through professional education, and participate in societal discussion relating to traditional sauna practices. They collaborate with various organisations maintaining sauna culture, such as the Suomen Saunakultuuri ry and the Sauna Circle connected to the UNESCO nomination. Perinnesaunottajat ry has its own adopted sauna, Tikkala, in the Sauna Village of Jämsä, where whisk treatments are organised almost every Saturday during opening times. In addition, other programmes based on folk tradition are organised in the Sauna Village. Traditional sauna practitioners also cooperate with educational institutions, universities and other organisations providing education. Sauna rituals and lectures on Baltic Finnic sauna traditions have been organised in vocational institutions in Päijät-Häme, Pirkanmaa and the Helsinki metropolitan area. Traditional sauna practices have also been conducted for primary school classes during school camps. Practitioners are also involved in an ongoing doctoral research project at the University of Eastern Finland.
The purpose of Taivaannaula ry is to preserve and sustain Finnish traditional culture and spiritual heritage. All Taivaannaula celebrations include sauna bathing on the evening before the festive day, known as the eve sauna. Rituals and incantations known from folk tradition are practiced in the eve sauna. Sauna-related customs are maintained not only at celebration sites but also in the association’s adopted sauna, Hiltunen sauna, located in the Sauna Village of Jämsä.
Documentation of the tradition
Archival materials related to Finnish sauna traditions are stored by various organisations. Some archives are public, such as the National Archives and museums, while others are private, such as the collections of the Finnish Literature Society (SKS).
Materials related to sauna exist in both analogue and digital form. Documentation spans a long historical period, ranging from eighteenth-century descriptions of folk life, through early twentieth-century research on peasant culture, to sauna guide literature of the 1950s. Sauna traditions have been recorded across multiple research fields, including sauna construction, specialised saunas such as lice saunas and wartime field saunas, stove technology, folklore studies (incantations, poetry, epics), health and well-being studies, and cultural studies (urban saunas, landscape studies, sauna communities). Extensive material related to sauna bathing is available through online services such as Finna and Astia.
Open-air museums with historical buildings also function as archives, where historical sauna buildings and artefacts related to sauna use can be observed. Old sauna buildings can be found in several museums, including the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum in Helsinki, the open-air museum of Hollola, Ilmajoki Museum, Brage Open-Air Museum in Vaasa, Forestry Museum of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Suomussalmi House Museum, North Karelia Museum in Joensuu, Riuttala Farmhouse Museum in Kuopio, and the Sauna Village of Jämsä, which includes over twenty traditional smoke saunas relocated from different parts of Finland, mainly dating from the eighteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The archives of the Finnish Literature Society collect folklore and oral history through nationwide collection campaigns and other activities. Sauna-related materials can be found in collections concerning folk medicine, ritual calendar traditions and folk belief, as well as in competition-based collections. For example, the 1992 collection campaign “Suomalainen sauna terveyden lähteenä” [“The Finnish sauna as a source of health”] includes valuable material relevant to sauna ritual practices.
Descriptions of older sauna-related folklore and folk medicine can also be found in Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot [The Ancient Poems of the Finnish People], a 34-volume publication issued between 1908 and 1948.
Perinnesaunottajat ry documents product descriptions created by its members for sauna services based on Baltic Finnic traditions. These include descriptions of the ritual, its content, operating guidelines, considerations of sustainable development and safety plans. The association also documents materials from events, such as photographs of practitioners at work, and has produced three presentation videos.
Some traditional sauna practitioners also work as artists in visual and performance art, as well as in eco-social participatory art. Experiences and practices related to traditional sauna rituals are thus developed and documented in artworks (such as videos and installations) and in artistic research publications (articles and books).
Taivaannaula ry’s website contains extensive folklore material, including content related to folk medicine, annual festivals and sauna culture. This material is presented in accessible and educational summaries and published as general-interest articles on social media.
Sustainable development
Members of Perinnesaunottajat ry who practise traditional sauna rituals professionally are guided by a jointly agreed ethical code of conduct. In addition to general principles, this includes practical guidelines for carrying out the activities while considering the different dimensions of sustainable development. Sustainable development is integrated into the training of traditional sauna practitioners, both in the methods of delivery and in the content of the training.
Traditional sauna practitioners respect nature and act responsibly, for example in the gathering of plants and in the preparation and use of sauna whisks. Traditional sauna practices can also be understood as an ecocultural phenomenon, reflecting an interdependent relationship between human values, ways of thinking and behaviour, and natural ecological systems. Consideration of environmental impacts is also reflected in the careful and planned use of water and energy. In practice, this means collecting and reusing water during different stages of sauna use, as well as heating therapeutic saunas at the appropriate times and to temperatures characteristic of these practices. Traditional sauna practitioners understand how their heating practices can influence particulate emissions from wood-heated saunas. In addition, environmental responsibility in traditional sauna practices includes systematic recycling, the prevention of waste, proper waste management and the use of environmentally certified care and cleaning products. Work opportunities distributed through the association are also offered to practitioners located geographically closest to the assignment, thereby aiming to minimise emissions caused by travel.
Traditional sauna practices promote well-being among their participants. They also foster a sense of pride in the ancient Baltic Finnic sauna culture, its spiritual heritage and the region’s traditions of folk medicine. Practitioners have increased awareness of sauna traditions, generated discussion and provided experiences of traditional sauna practices for diverse groups, including schools, immigrant groups, LGBTQ+ communities, elderly people and people with reduced mobility. The association seeks to develop sauna culture in a more accessible and equitable direction. An understanding of safer space principles is included in both the ethical guidelines and the training of traditional sauna practitioners.
Traditional sauna practitioners collaborate with, among others, domestic producers of sauna whisks and sauna-related products, sauna entrepreneurs and actors in the event sector, thereby contributing to economic well-being in local economies across Finland. Traditional sauna practices bring together a wide range of actors, including artists, professionals in the cultural and tourism sectors, practitioners of traditional skills, actors in the environmental and nature sectors, as well as professionals in the fields of well-being, health and care, education and academia. This diversity of backgrounds is a strength that creates a multifaceted and relational understanding of sauna traditions and traditional sauna practices. The association supports the activities and sense of community among its members.
The future of the tradition
Since the establishment of Perinnesaunottajat ry in 2020 and the consolidation of its activities, the concept of traditional sauna practice and the designation of “traditional sauna practitioner” have become established within the vocabulary of the sauna sector.
Through the development of traditional sauna practices, interest in sauna rituals and ceremonial practices based on folk tradition has grown in Finland. The country’s therapeutic sauna culture has also diversified; the traditional practice of whisk treatments has been reintroduced, along with the associated knowledge and teaching. Growing interest in the spiritual and folk medicinal dimensions of sauna-related cultural heritage is reflected in increasing demand for traditional sauna practices at various events, such as the Sauna Village at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival and numerous events organised on Finnish Sauna Day. Interest in reviving and maintaining traditional communal sauna practices has also increased the popularity of traditional sauna rituals. Examples include the growing popularity of Kekri sauna rituals in different parts of Finland and the tradition in the Sauna Village of Jämsä of consecrating a smoke sauna when it is first brought into use. In annual celebrations organised by associations and communities such as Taivaannaula and Karhun kansa (a contemporary Finnish neo-pagan community), traditional sauna practices have already become an established tradition.
Experts in traditional sauna practices have also actively participated in public discussion and academic research. These experts include individuals who have completed doctoral dissertations, those preparing doctoral research, as well as those whose work forms part of doctoral research studies.
The community/communities behind this submission
Bibliography and links to external sources of information
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