Category Archives: Traditions

This article covers the differences of different sauna whisks. The sauna whisk ritual and tradition is discussed in another article on this page. Birch whisks The birch whisk is the most common whisk type in Finland. There are three main types of birch trees in Finland: Rauduskoivu (Silver birch, Betula pendula) Hieskoivu (Downy birch, BetulaContinue reading “Different types of sauna whisks”

Disclaimer: it really is not my fault if you burn yourself in sauna, if your sauna heater does not like water or if whatever happens in your sauna or outside of your sauna. Consider this page more like a place to read stories. In the U.S., Finnish saunas are often referred to as dry saunas.Continue reading “Generating Perfect Löyly”

This tradition is probably quite obvious to the millions of Russian readers of this blog but I actually heard about this first time in my thirties when I visited Russian Banya in Carrollton for the first time and saw some Russian customers pouring tea from a samovar. A Finnish man should never show any signContinue reading “(Russian) Sauna Tea”

Let’s all admit, there’s something about cooking your sausage in a hot sauna. Kiuasmakkara (stove sausage) or saunamakkara is probably the most iconic food to cook in a sauna at least in Finland. Koreans have their famous sauna eggs. However, they are usually not cooked in a sauna. So let’s just say that kiuasmakkara isContinue reading “Kiuasmakkara”

This article is about the saunavasta (sauna whisk) tradition. See also the Different types of sauna whisks post. A popular tradition in Finnish sauna culture is to beat the sh*t out of your friend with birch branches called sauna whisks, or saunavihta (Western Finland) or saunavasta (Eastern Finland) in Finnish. In addition to relieving yourContinue reading “The Saunavasta (sauna whisk) Tradition”

Some use sauna for aromatherapy and some just like to add some scents there. Just out of curiosity, I have spent a lot of time to test different scents. Incense I generally like burning incense and I brought a few of those to the sauna. It turned out that the scent is too weak soContinue reading “Sauna Scents”

I never wore a hat in sauna in my childhood and I actually had to check if anyone wore one in the pictures featured in the Unesco’s presentation of Finnish sauna culture. It turns out that Finns wear hats in sauna but my believe is that this tradition might be more popular in Russia. InContinue reading “Sauna Hats”

An essential sauna rule not to break is the so called “Ovi kii!” rule. As you might guess, we burn decent amount of fuel of some kind to heat up the sauna and the sauna stones. You generate steam, aka löyly, by slowly pouring water on hot stones. This very inefficient, yet traditional way ofContinue reading “The “Ovi Kii” Rule”

Sauna-Jallu tradition was introduced to me as late as 2019. Jallu, aka jaloviina aka cut brandy is an iconic adult beverage in Finland. It is not a Finnish invention as such but a very Finnish drink indeed: a mixture of brandy, grain liquor and water. What makes it so Finnish then? According my knowledge, FinnishContinue reading “Sauna-Jallu”