Dear ISA Members and other Saunalovers
The COVID19 is still on and in actual case becoming more serious a problem in many countries.
Most of the events are cancelled and the only way to communicate is via net and net meetings.
E.g. ISA has the next Board Meeting via Internet before end of November because we cannot
travel and meet each other this time.
Enclosed some quick things about some new books , web meetings and events etc.
Please visit also the web site www.saunainternational.net which has been updated by Kim
Pedersen in Denmark.
Read also about a 100% non polluting solar stove (kiuas in Finnish) which could be a solution
to heat the sauna and sauna stove.
The future of wood fired stoves because of the pollution could be difficult if the stove manufacturers
do not find new technologies to reduce the emission of small particles when burning wood. Some
new directives as well as standards are coming and are effective sooner or later.
Could you please let me know what is the situation in Your own territory.
Wishing You all a very good last weeks of this very strange year 2020. We hope that we can have our
Christmas Saunas as usual and that the NEW YEAR 2021 is better for all of us.
Have a good LÖYLY!
Risto
Below some news , events etc. FYI.
Wellness Trends Emerging from the Pandemic – Recent Article
What Is the Next Wave of Wellness?–ED\GE by Backslash
ED\GE, a new magazine from Backslash, a cultural intelligence unit powered by TBWA\Worldwide,
lays out the main shifts they’re now tracking in wellness, arguing that the pandemic is making wellness
a dramatically more important, serious consumer value, with “avocado toast, fasting, athleisure and
being shouted at while sitting on a $2k stationary bike (being) mere saplings compared to what’s on
the horizon.” Their five, major conclusions: 1) wellness is going back to basics, 2) it’s “wellness and
health” not “health and wellness” (the pandemic has woken us up to the seriousness of prevention),
3) wellness with a capital W (less silly and superficial, more science-based), 4) wellness is getting
political, and 5) wellness is our new global religion, fulfilling humans’ spiritual needs. The report identifies
numerous emerging wellness trends, from how a youth subculture now fetishizes nature to the surge
in ‘financial therapy’ to a massive menopause rebrand.
Read their key wellness shifts.
Read the full report.
SMOKE SAUNA in Estonia
THIS IS ( see the video ) good way to use a smoke sauna. Eda Veeroja is one of the smoke sauna specialists
and also behind the approval of smoke sauna in Estonia to the UNESCO list of Intangible
Heritage of mannkind in 2014.
I and several other sauna enthusiasts including have been taisting the smoked
meat from Mooska and it is delicious when visiting the sauna there.
And more from Estonia.
There is a sauna enthusiasts who has been bathing in 720 different
saunas. See the enclosed picture of this guy using a nickname PLUTO in one of his
favorite saunas that is naturally smoke sauna.If You like to contact him , please
let me know. i have his contact data.
INTERESTING SMOKE SAUNA project in Lithuania. Local ISA Members involved.
The State Museum-Reserve of Archeology and History likely accepted the idea of revival of ancient Lithuanian smoke pirtis (sauna).
It has been built as exact replica of genuine smoke sauna that has been found at the place of historical capital of Lithuanian
Grand Duthcery – Kernavė. More about historical Lithuanian pirtis at: http://bath.academy/en/rask-pirti/linthuanian-pirtis-tradition
Association of Professional Bath Masters proposed the help of volunteers and Lithuanian Bath Academy offered free
technical advice and took all responsibility of technical convert of museum artifact to a living smoke sauna that can be used for
special educational events. The idea turned to be a huge success. Living smoke pirtis has been heated
Some technical details
The ceiling boards were lap jointed and laid on the beams. The hot room ceiling has been then insulated by a layer of glass
canvas covered with good 6 inches of sawdust and sand mixture. Gaps between logs were hand insulated by a flax fibers.
Existing stone oven has been inspected and tested. We found that the opening is a little too big, so a few raw timber butts
were hewn and covered by clay to form a sort of fire door for the oven.
The heating lasted about 3 and halve hours and provided more then enough heat and steam for 3 hours of bathing. Lithuanian
bath masters Birute, Rimas and Giedrius were responsible for all ancient bathing event. Giedrius made a dozen of birch whisks
in the ancient way, Birute recreated ancient ash wash solution and Rimas heated oven and made hot water by throwing red hot stones
in the buckets. The autenticity of procedures was approved by archeology researcher A. Luhtan who made all archeological excavations in the 70-ies.
The future of the project
The revived smoke pirtis will be used for educational events by The State Museum-Reserve of Archeology and History. Association of
Professional Bath Masters will provide bath professionals to conduct the procedures in proper and safe way and Lithuanian Bath
Academy will ensure safety , technical support and qualification check.
Rimas Kavaliauskas
AND NEW books about SAUNA that have been published by CHRISTIE PEARSON
Practically everywhere that bodies of water are accessible for public soaking, the architect and writer Christie Pearson has tried them out while taking glorious notes. Her book, “The Architecture of Bathing: Body, Landscape, Art” (MIT Press, $49.95, 412 pp.), careens around in time and place and ponders “the bath’s utopian and dystopian aspects.” Customers at ancient Roman bathhouses attended poetry readings once they had cleansed pores with strigil scrapings. Suggested additives for bathwater in Asia through the ages have included mugwort and irises. Ms. Pearson has peered into Indian stepwells shaped like upside-down ziggurats and wandered mazes of domed masonry bathhouses in Budapest, illuminated only by “rays coming through tiny stars of glass, articulating mathematical symmetries.” She does not shy away from the dark side of underwater realms: Nazis adapting showers into death chambers, vampires bathing in blood, bigotry that has kept races and genders segregated and unequal in public pools. But she still conveys the transformative power of a soak. Sylvia Plath, in “The Bell Jar,” described sweeping aside depression and anxiety while memorizing bathtub experiences down to the cracks in damp ceilings, “the shapes and sizes of the water taps and the different sorts of soap holders.”
GARRETT CONOVER
His book “ Magic Sauna “ was published in 2019. The book is written by a person
who loves sauna in the Finnish way. Especially I like the way he is introducing sauna
to the newcomers. If one follows his advices I am sure that those people become
enthusiasts .
There are also nice pictures from different saunas in Garrett´s region which is the East
Coast of USA as well as parts of Canada.
If You are interested in the book You can contact Garrett via e-mail :
SAUNA EVENTS
Sauna events have been cancelled or psotponed and only virtual events are possible.
As You know e.g. in Germany all the saunas are closed at least for November .
Anyway there has been several webinars organised by several organisations . Some
of them have been very big having hundreds of people on-line at the same time
from all parts of the globe.
One interesting net event is going to be in the beginning of December
WORLD SAUNA FORUM December 3th and 4th 2020
Sauna from Finland welcomes you to the world’s biggest virtual sauna event—for free!
More info see above the page. There is also a link for registrations.
About the different webinars in the field of sauna we try to keep the members updated.
there was several interesting ones earlier organised e.g. by Lithuanian Bath Academy.
Beacause of the Covid restrictions also saunas have become virtual which I personally do
not like at all. Hopefully those who have been participating virtual saunas do get sooner
or later an option to try the real one.auna Forum is an
HERE is one VIRTUAL Sauna video from the Finnish Embassy in Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6aBRoda4RE
ALSO the SAUNA CAPITAL of the WORLD Tampere and the Finnish group SAUNAKONKELI has been
organising virtual sauna visist togetherwith some partners in Japan. If You are inetrested please
let me know or see the web page Visit Tampere.
SOLAR SAUNA STOVE FROM LYTEFIRE
Lytefire has been supporting member of iSa for some tyme on a trial period. they have
been developing sauna stove where the stones are heated with solar energy. This
kind of sauna stove has no pollution which is important eapecially in places like
the alps where pollution is one of the threats for tourism.
The firts trial sauna was built in the Alps early this year. Unfortunately COVID19 has
been restricting the options to visit the place and try the sauna and it´s LÖYLY.
You can find a picture of this sauna above and more information either from their
website https://solarfire.io/en#press or from me.
