The Definition of Sauna by Lisa Steinmann
Written By:
Minea Herwitz
“There has to be a connection between sauna and happiness.” –Eero Kilpi
What is a good definition of sauna? There are few places better than Hancock, Michigan for sorting out the definition of traditional Finnish sauna from a large field of pretenders. During the weekend of January 25, my husband and I drove from the Twin Cities to Hancock to learn more by attending the culminating event of Keweenaw Sauna Week combined with annual Heikinpäivä festivities.
The stark beauty of Lake Superior in winter. Photo © Jack Steinmann
Thanks to Arctic air that sweeps over the grand expanse of Lake Superior, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan gets a famous amount of lake effect snow. When we arrived, Hancock looked like a town inside a snow globe. It was the perfect setting for the events of Heikinpäivä, the annual midwinter celebration of all things Finnish-American. If you have sisu, the grit and determination to head north rather than south in winter, then I highly recommend this destination.
The Saturday morning of our visit started with a piece of homemade triple berry pie at the Methodist Church craft and bake sale (included in the transaction was a friendly conversation with the baker who later mailed us her recipe). Heikinpäivä activities continued down the street at the Finnish American Heritage Center, where there was more Tori Market shopping and a buffet table serving up hot and hearty food, the elements of which are familiar to anyone with Nordic roots: lake fish, meat stews, creamy mashed potatoes, pickles, rye breads and cookies–so many kinds of cookies. The key ingredient to all of this was hospitality, a quality in which the local folks excel.
Shortly before noon, we were invited to join the lively, colorful parade along Quincy Street by climbing onto a wagon drawn by two enormous Belgian Draft Horses. We were honored to ride along with the third grade Heikinpäivä essay winners. Afterwards, we joined the crowd on snowy Quincy Green for Karhunpeijäiset, or the Bear Spiral Dance. Next we cheered the competitors in the wife carrying contest and the kids’ kicksled races. By mid-afternoon we were ready to rest our feet and attend Keweenaw Sauna Week’s featured event, a talk by Eero Kilpi, founding member of the North American Sauna Society (NASS), current president of the Finlandia Foundation in New York as well as the foundation’s Lecturer of the Year. He also hosts the podcast The Upper Bench.
With Eero Kilpi in Hancock. photo © Jack Steinmann
Mr. Kilpi’s talk “Sauna Lost and Found: Restoring Finnishness to a Global Tradition” opened with two different definitions of sauna. In the U.S., he says, it is essentially a small room with hot air. In Finland, it is a bathing space designed for high temperatures. Raised in Helsinki but a resident of the U.S for many years, Mr Kilpi described how shocked he was by one of his first American saunas. The dry, heated room featured a carpet, low benches (none near the ceiling), a stove with just a few rocks, all poorly maintained; the worst part was–no water for bathing. He shared a short video of his visit to North Dakota, Sauna Lost and Found, where he realized that inipi, Lakota sweat lodges, have more in common with the Finnish sauna tradition than the typical American sauna.
Mr. Kilpi is concerned that the word sauna is being stretched to fit things that have little connection to Finnish lifestyle and heritage. Sauna, he emphasized, is NOT a hot room alone; it is a bathing space that allows for sweating and rinsing several times. He emphasized the intangible spiritual and physical effects of this ritual rooted in the fundamentals of fire, earth, air and water. He shared a picture of a sauna cottage in the woods, wisps of smoke coming from the chimney of its kiua, a lake just steps away for bathing. A place, he said, where one can stand naked outside and “feel at one with nature.” There is a growing movement to bring this meaning back to the word sauna, according to Mr. Kilpi. He lamented current trends that market sauna as part of a gym workout or a prestige item for the wealthy. “We must fight the narrow minded approach to health benefits and architect-designed hotboxes.”
A traditional sauna in the U.P. photo © Jack Steinmann
On Sunday, we drove to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, about 35 miles north and east of town. The road hugged the edge of Lake Superior, a dramatic vista in blue and white with small icebergs floating off the frozen shore. As we were driving we got a call from local friends inviting us to their sauna that had just been awarded a NASS “Traditional Sauna” plaque by Mr. Kilpi.
We arrived in the dark to their cozy home nestled in a landscape of snow piled like thick frosting. The sauna is a log building over 100 years old that they had moved from a local farmstead to their property. It has been restored to perfection with a well stocked dressing room and a lantern lit sauna room. The wood fire was stoked to a satisfying 190 degrees. The room hummed with the sound of water boiling in a tank next to the stove. We relaxed into the heat and then cooled off several times. We chatted but mostly enjoyed the silence and finished with a wash and rinse with basins of water poured over our heads.
Photo © Jack Steinmann
Afterwards, I stepped outside between deep snowbanks feeling peaceful, clean and warm. I gazed at the stars glittering like Christmas lights though the branches of tall trees and realized that a definition of sauna may be difficult to put into words, but this…this feeling was it.
Lisa Steinmann
lisa.steinmann@gmail.com