Reader Ismo Peltonen had these comments on my opening notes to Sauna Opera:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><P>Actually there is no Finnish rule that'd state that sauna is to be used
by members of one gender only at a time. It's just that typically public
saunas operate that way to not to offend anyone of either gender (and to
not give draw in sex-crazed maniacs that'd harass people), as well as do
saunas in many occasions when there are lots of attendees.. Eg. when I
was studying at the University of Helsinki, the student body's sauna
evenings usually had first some time reserved for female, then male, and
the rest of the evening was for anyone who doesn't care. Typically that
meant that one or two girls wanted to take half an hour, and no guy ever
cared..<P>In the old, and even now in family, sauna is a place of relaxation and
bathing. The whole family goes together, or if the family is larger than
the sauna, usually mother (+grandmother, aunt, whoever other adult
female) take the youngest children first, and the elders get the next
shift, while the teen- and up have the last shift. Also, in parties and
other occasions when there is just a small group of people (no more than
three times the size of the sauna <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif"> ), shifts are formed in quite
informal manner ("Sauna is hot, who's coming now?" and then those who
grab their towels first will get first shift <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">, and the rest will just
check every now and then if some people have taken a break (often by
lakeside people want to take a short half an hour break after first set
in, drinking a beer, possibly swimming a round or two) or have left the
sauna thus making space for more to get in.<P>
What has had rules have been special occasions that usually had other
spiritual meanings. Eg. in spring gatherings (a pretty long time ago,
perhaps would fit into the ~1000AD range) young maidens were definitely
separate from the others until later, as they maintained spiritual
purity (yeah, sure <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">) until when they tried to see if their possible
love would be around..<P>Same could be with many other groups of people. However, family would be
hard to separate on these occasions, too. Young maidens would form
natural groups, as with young (and bold <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif"> men. However, settled, mid
aged, as well as elderly, would probably go with the family. Possibly
though so that the men from different areas would get to bath together
and swap stories and discuss matters of imporance, although even on
those occasions women of power (usually wives of respected leaders as
well as exceptionally strong willed and able women who had gained
respect even among the men completely on their own merits) would often
be in the sauna group of their husband with the excuse of "the old man
getting a little stiff and being quite accustomed to having his back
rubbed by his wife" while actually also participating in the very
important sauna meetings.. You know, no important decision in Finland is
made without having an evening and going to sauna to discuss things,
possibly coming from the tradition that all men are equal in sauna -
naked, scrubbing their backs, and relaxing.<P>
Or something like that anyway <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif"> Separating genders is pretty new idea,
probably mostly having become after families grew smaller, more
independent of their immediate surroundings.<P><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>(Reproduced with Ismo's permission)
Actually, I sort of suspected most of this, because my own sources on the subject all contradicted each other, and because the idea of privacy is a very modern invention in any case <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif"> But it was great to see it spelled out by someone who actually knows something about it! <P>------------------
Reinder Dijkhuis
<A HREF="http://www.rocr.net/" TARGET=_blank>Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan</A>, Humorous fantasy strip, updated Mon-Fri, and really rather good. <A HREF="http://www.rocr.net/d/20000701.html" TARGET=_blank>Read it from the first strip!</A><P><A HREF="http://whio.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>White House in Orbit</A>
