Although cultures in all corners of the world have imported and adapted the sauna, many of the traditional customs have not survived the journey. Today, public perception of saunas, sauna "etiquette" and sauna customs vary hugely from country to country. In many countries sauna going is a recent fashion and attitudes towards saunas are changing, while in others traditions have survived over generations.
Africa In Africa, most sauna facilities are found in more upmarket hotels, spas, and health clubs and predominantly share both sauna heater technology and design concepts as applied in Europe. Even though outdoor temperatures remain warmer and more humid, this does not affect the general application or intended sauna experience offered within these commercial environments offering a traditional sauna and or
steam shower experience.
Asia In
Iran, most gyms, hotels, and almost all public swimming pools have indoor saunas. It is very common for swimming pools to have two saunas which are known in
Persian as سونای خشک "dry sauna" and سونای بخار "steam sauna", with the dry type customarily boasting a higher temperature. A cold-water pool (and/or more recently a cold Jacuzzi) is almost always accompanied and towels are usually provided. Adding therapeutic or relaxing essential oils to the rocks is common. In Iran, unlike Finland, sitting in a sauna is mostly seen as part of the spa/club culture, rather than a bathing ritual. It is most usually perceived as a means for relaxation or detoxification (through perspiration). Having a sauna room on private property is considered a luxury rather than a necessity. Public saunas are segregated and nudity is prohibited. In
Japan, many saunas exist at sports centers and public
bathhouses (
sentō). The saunas are almost always gender separated, often required by law, and nudity is a required part of proper sauna etiquette. While right after
World War II, public bathhouses were commonplace in Japan, the number of customers dwindled as more people were able to afford houses and apartments equipped with their own private baths as the nation became wealthier. As a result, many sentōs have added more features such as saunas to survive. In
Korea, saunas are essentially public bathhouses. Various names are used to describe them, such as the smaller
mogyoktang, outdoor
oncheon, and the elaborate
jjimjilbang. The word "sauna" is used a lot for its 'English appeal'; however, it does not strictly refer to the original Fennoscandian steam rooms that have become popular throughout the world. The
konglish word
sauna (사우나) usually refers to bathhouses with Jacuzzis, hot tubs, showers, steam rooms, and related facilities.In
Laos, herbal steam sauna or
hom yaa in
Lao, is very popular, especially with women and is available in every village. Many women apply yogurt or a paste blend based on
tamarind on their skin as a beauty treatment. The sauna is always heated by wood fire and herbs are added either directly to the boiling water or steam jet in the room. The sitting lounge is mixed gender but the steam rooms are gender separated.
Bael fruit tea known in lao as
muktam tea is usually served.
Australia and Canada In
Australia and
Canada, saunas are found mainly in hotels, swimming pools, and health clubs and if used by both men and women, nudity is often forbidden, even if implicitly. In gyms or health clubs with separate male and female change rooms, nudity is permitted; however, members are usually asked to shower before using the sauna and to sit on a towel. In Canada, saunas have increasingly become a fixture of
cottage culture, which shares many similarities with its Finnish counterpart (mökki).
Europe Nordic and Baltic Finland and Estonia A sauna session can be a social affair in which the participants disrobe and sit or recline in
temperatures typically between . This induces relaxation and promotes
sweating. People use a bundle of
birch twigs with fresh leaves (
Finnish:
vihta or
vasta;
Estonian:
viht), to slap the skin and create further stimulation of the pores and cells. The sauna is an important part of daily life, and families bathe together in the home sauna. There are at least 2 million saunas in Finland according to official registers. The Finnish Sauna Society believes the number can be as high as 3.2 million saunas (population 5.5 million). Many Finns take at least one a week, and much more when they visit their summer cottage in the countryside. Here the pattern of life tends to revolve around the sauna, and a nearby lake used for cooling off. Rajaportin sauna 2017-03-04 15.01.56.jpg|
Rajaportin sauna in
Tampere, the oldest working public sauna in Finland Sauna-pool.JPG|A modern sauna in Finland Hinni talu saun.jpg|A sauna in Estonia Sauna of Kapelo.JPG|Sauna building in Finland Sunset sauna, Saadjärv.jpg|Estonian sauna on a lake Sauna traditions in Estonia are almost identical to Finland as saunas have traditionally held a central role in the life of an individual.
Ancient Estonians believed saunas were inhabited by spirits. In folk tradition, the sauna was not only the place where one washed but also used as the place where brides were ceremoniously washed, where women gave birth, and the place where the dying made their final bed. The folk tradition related to the Estonian sauna is mostly identical to that surrounding the Finnish sauna. On New Year's Eve, a sauna would be held before midnight to cleanse the body and spirit for the upcoming year.
Latvia and Lithuania In
Lithuanian, bathhouse or sauna is ; in
Latvian, it is . Both countries have long bathhouse traditions, dating back to the
pagan times. The 13th-century bathhouses in the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania were mentioned in the
Hypatian Codex and
Chronicon terrae Prussiae, as they were practised by the
Lithuanian dukes. The chronicle also mentions the year 1215 baths of the
Latgalian ruler
Tālivaldis which were built in
Trikāta. In 1536,
Vilnius gained a royal privilege to build
public bathhouses, and by the end of the 16th century, the city already had 60 of them with a countless number of private ones. Traditionally,
birch twigs (; ) are the most common, but
oak or
linden are used too.
Dutch-speaking regions Public saunas can be found throughout the
Netherlands and
Flanders, both in major cities and in smaller municipalities, mixed-sex nudity is the generally accepted rule. Some saunas might offer women-only (or "bathing suit only") times for people who are less comfortable with mixed-sex nudity;
Algemeen Dagblad reported in 2008 that women-only, bathing suit-required times are drawing
Muslim women in the Netherlands to the sauna.
United Kingdom, Atlantic and Mediterranean Europe In the
United Kingdom and much of
Southern Europe, single-gender saunas are the most common type. Nudity is expected in the segregated saunas but is usually forbidden in the mixed saunas. Sauna sessions tend to be shorter, and cold showers are shunned by most. In the United Kingdom, where public saunas are becoming increasingly fashionable, the practice of alternating between the sauna and the
jacuzzi in short seatings (considered a
faux pas in Northern Europe) has emerged. There is a fast-growing new British sauna culture consisting mainly of 'wild' outdoor spas, popping up all over the UK. In Portugal, the steam baths were commonly used by the
Castrejos people, before the arrival of the Romans in the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. The historian
Strabo spoke of
Lusitans traditions that consisted of having steam bath sessions followed by cold water baths. Pedra Formosa is the original name given to the central piece of the steam bath in pre-Roman times.
German-speaking countries , Germany In
Germany,
Austria,
Luxembourg,
South Tyrol and
Liechtenstein, most public swimming pool complexes have sauna areas; in these locales, nudity is the generally accepted rule, and benches are expected to be covered by people's towels. These rules are strictly enforced in some public saunas. Separate single-sex saunas for both genders are rare,). Aufguss sessions are usually announced by a schedule on the sauna door. An Aufguss session in progress might be indicated by a light or sign hung above the sauna entrance. Cold showers or baths shortly after a sauna, as well as exposure to fresh air in a special balcony, garden, or open-air room (
Frischluftraum) are considered a must. In
German-speaking Switzerland, customs are generally the same as in Germany and Austria, although you tend to see more families (parents with their children) and young people. Also concerning socializing in the sauna, the Swiss tend more to be like the Finns, Scandinavians, or Russians. Also in German-speaking countries, there are many facilities for washing after using the sauna, with 'dunking pools' (pools of very cold water in which a person dips themselves after using the sauna) or showers. In some saunas and steam rooms, scented salts are given out which can be rubbed into the skin for extra aroma and cleaning effects.
Hungary Hungarians see the sauna as part of a wider spa culture. Most commonly, mixed genders use the sauna together and wear swimsuits. Single-sex saunas are rare, as well as those that impose nudity although the practice is growing and several spas have a towel-only policy on designated days. The most common types of saunas are the very hot and dry Finnish sauna (
finn szauna), the steam room (
gőzkabin), and the infrared sauna (
infraszauna). In many larger spas, you can find a separate sauna section that can only be used with a separate entrance ticket. These units are often called sauna world (
szaunavilág) and have additional services, for example, a cold plunge pool, resting areas, jacuzzi, showers, and crushed ice bucket. Aufguss sessions, led by a qualified sauna master, are becoming popular.
Czech Republic and Slovakia In the
Czech Republic and
Slovakia, saunas have a long tradition and are often found as part of recreational facilities, as well as public swimming pools. Many people are regular goers, while many never go. Saunas became more popular after about the year 2000 when large aquaparks and wellness centers began to include them. Nudity is increasingly tolerated, and many places prohibit the use of swimsuits; however, most people cover themselves with a towel. Showers are typically semi-private. Having men and women-only days was the norm in the past, but today, men-only facilities are rare, while women-only hours are sometimes provided.
Russia In many regions of
Russia, sauna-going plays a central social role. These countries also have the tradition of massaging fellow sauna-goers with leafy, wet
birch bunches, called
venik (веник) in Russian. In Russian-speaking communities, the word
banya (Russian: Баня) is widely used also when referring to a public bath. In Russia, public
banya baths are strictly single-sex. During wintertime, sauna-goers often run outdoors for either
ice swimming or, in the absence of lake, just to roll around in the snow naked and then go back inside. Russian traditional
banya is quite similar to the Finnish sauna, despite the popular misconception that the Finnish sauna is very dry.
North America and Central America farm pond on the shores of
Burntside Lake in
Morse Township, Minnesota In the
United States, the earliest saunas that arrived with the colonists were Swedish
bastus in the colony of New Sweden around the Delaware River. The Swedish governor at the time had a bathhouse on Tinicum Island. especially the Keweenaw Peninsula, and parts of
Minnesota,
Wisconsin, and
Iowa, which are home to large populations of Swedish and particularly
Finnish Americans. Duluth, Minnesota, at its peak, had as many as 14 public saunas. The
sweat lodge, used by several
Native American and
First Nations traditional ceremonial cultures, is a location for a spiritual ceremony. The focus is on the ceremony, and the sweating is only secondary. Unlike sauna traditions, and most forcefully in the case of the
Inipi, the sweat lodge ceremonies have been robustly defended as an exclusively Native expression of spirituality rather than a recreational activity. ==Traditions and old beliefs==