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 ...

THE SAUNA AT THE FINNISH PERM REP, BRUSSELS — It’s very hot in here. But not hot enough, according to my Finnish hosts. The time has come for a ladle’s worth of water to be poured onto the pile of ...

As the cab slows to a stop, I scrape some of Jack Frost’s handiwork from the window and peer into the depths of the polar night. We’re only 15 minutes from the center of Helsinki, yet dense forest ...

Contemporary sweat baths reflect the country’s architectural past — and propose a future in which simple, sustainable buildings can still be sublime. The lowest and coolest area in traditional Finnish ...

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 ...

It’s a sticky, steamy business. Two or more do it naked in a small, dimly lit room. Suomi (Finland) as it is referred to in Finnish, I got a rare opportunity in April this year to visit this Nordic ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Christopher and Julie Rice sat naked in the sauna, sweating in its 180-degree heat. In the crisp air outside, they then played a few hands of cribbage and noshed on pickles and ...

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 ...

Steaming in a sauna is an essential part of Finnish culture, but the number of public saunas is said to be in decline. A new sauna in Helsinki has been built to help combat this. Designed to attract ...

One recent evening, I went to a foreign embassy and got naked with about 20 strangers—mostly Hill staffers, journalists, and a few Finnish people. This was a formal, and very exclusive, event held by ...

On a wintry day in Kallio, a bohemian neighborhood in Helsinki, a group of Finns huddle outside on wooden benches, clad only in towels, steam rising from their bodies, drinking beer, relaxed. This is ...