What if I Told You About Finland’s Sauna Obsession? Welcome to Finland, a country utterly obsessed with saunas. The sauna is the most important social forum in Finland. There are more saunas than cars ...

In a small, enclosed room, people sit side by side on wooden benches. Water thrown on hot stones releases clouds of scalding steam and temperatures soar to a scolding 80C. This is sauna bathing, a ...

There’s a word in Finnish which evades translation: löyly. It’s commonly used to describe the steam that rises when water is poured onto hot stones in a sauna. But it also signifies spirit or life ...

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you have any health issues, you should consult your doctor before using a sauna. For some, the idea of sweating among semi-naked strangers in a small wooden box as hot as 100 degrees ...

John “JP” Pederson says his time as an exchange student in Finland warmed him up to “sauna,” a word he uses as a noun, verb, adjective and a way of life. In his quest to spread sauna to other ...