thread: 2013-08-01 : A Guide to the Sauna for Shy Americans
On 2013-08-02, An another Finn wrote:
Coed sauna with relatives is nothing unusual, with utter strangers it might be, but not in every situation. When I was 16 I was an organizer (read: a n assistant cook) at a scout camp and the camp had a mixed sauna for organizers every evening. Men and women, young and old, and most of them strangers to each other, would go to sauna together in groups of about 10-30 people. There was nothing strange about that at the time.
Also, like someone mentioned above, in the countryside in ye olden days sauna had a sort of a spiritual meaning, it was the place they would wash you in after you were born and also before you were buried. A sort of place between life and death, as it were. There was also a folk song, composed shortly after WW2 by Tapio Rautavaara, a popular musician here, with the title: "True medals are only visible in sauna."
