Blowing hot and cold in Finland

They say some like it hot. But in Finland everyone likes it hot. And then they like it cold. And then hot again. It’s a national obsession. According to the Finnish Sauna Society, there are now up to three million saunas in Finland, which sounds like a lot even before you discover that there are only 5.5million Finns available to sit in them. That’s one sauna for every 1.8 people.

If hot is your thing, well, a sauna is the ideal place to toy with the upper limits of what humans can tolerate. Between 80C and 90C ought to do it. And cold? After about 15 minutes of chucking water on sizzling coals, you’ll be pretty steamed up, so take a

On Sauna Day, they had gone for the Full Monty

cooling shower – or if you’re doing it properly, go for a dip in a freezing lake. Then repeat, this time while whisking yourself gently with a birch twig. (It helps circulation, apparently.)

In Britain the idea of a “sauna day”, when private saunas open their doors to the public, would be cause for mild amusement – coloured, no doubt, by the rather grubby connection on our shores between saunas and “massage parlours”. In Helsinki, which had its first such celebration earlier this year, saunas are such a source of pride that next Saturday they are doing Helsinki Sauna Day all over again.

The Finnish Sauna Society sums it all up in the words of the Finnish writer Maila Talvio: “There is nothing that Finns have been so unanimous about as their sauna. This unanimity has remained unbroken for centuries and is sure to continue as long as there are children born in their native