In my thesis in comparative religion, I researched the sauna as a sacred place and a national symbol. There is ample textual and ethnographic evidence that sauna has been considered in Finnish history a holy place, and a location for otherworldly encounters in people’s minds. The starting hypothesis of the study is that these events are connected with the action of “having a sauna” (saunominen), i.e. going to the sauna and bathing, which has become ritualised. This has resulted in sauna having a special significance in people’s minds, and that sauna has become a sort of national symbol and a major part of Finnish everyday life and culture partly because of this.

The research material consists of textual materials from the folklore archives of Finnish Literature Society and interviews done with members of the Finnish Sauna Society. The former works as orientating material and the latter offers a possibility for deeper discussions about issues rising from the archive material.

To analyse the material I use the theory of the ‘sacred’ as formed by Veikko Anttonen. It focuses on the borderline aspect of sacred and is based on three concepts which direct human thought and action: body, society and territory. The analysis consist of three themes which discuss the different interconnected aspects of the material. 1) The Body focuses on the bodily aspect of the sauna, including the written and unwritten rules concerning nudity and general behaviour in sauna. 2) The Communitas focuses on the liminality of the sauna: the harmonious feeling, the notion of equality among other people in sauna, etc. 3) The Territory focuses on how the mind works at the borders of differing categories, and how cognitive functions “canalize” cultural habits. The ritualisation of going to sauna seems to be actualised especially in the practise of inviting guests, especially foreign people, to the sauna.

I argue that sauna still has a sacred status in people’s minds, even though going to sauna has become largely secularised, as compared to ancient traditions. Researching people with a considerable enthusiasm about sauna seems to suggest that the notion of sacredness is still evident in Finnish sauna; there is enough evidence to argue that going to sauna is ritualised for some people and in certain contexts. If this has resulted in sauna having become a national symbol is, of course, impossible to “prove”, but I merely argue that there might be a connection with the pre-Christian meanings of the ‘sacred’, ritualisation, and our current attitude towards sauna.