Niemi-Kapee
THE FORUM
This year’s World Sauna Forum, held in Jyvaskyla, Finland, was the ninth annual gathering of Sauna professionals and enthusiasts, and for many of us in the industry, a chance to connect with partners and friends from around the globe. Organized by Sauna From Finland, the forum combines Finnish sauna experiences with business to business opportunities, speaker series, workshops and marketplace, as well as pre and post forum excursions and events. This year’s opening session highlighted connection, belonging, and happiness as the core ingredients to Finnish sauna culture, but connection is the key.
It is not just sauna business that brings us together each summer in central Finland, it is an opportunity to connect with Finnish culture; the wonderful food, art, history, natural beauty, language, local people, and of course sauna, which is deeply rooted in daily life in Finland.
TAMPERE REGION
Kaukjärven sauna, Karen with Saunamekko on the picture. A lakeside public sauna in Tampere, offering three very good saunas, light concessions, and a grill for makkara (sausage).
Niemi-Kapee. One of the most memorable experiences of this trip was a visit to Nieme Kapee, arranged by our fabulous guides at SaunaKonkeli.
“A stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet.”
- Unknown
Finnish folk art
Connection
In the sauna, we connect with others, but there is more than this obvious social opportunity. In carrying the wood and the water. In cleaning out the ashes, and lighting the fire. In nourishing the flame, and caring for the space, we are offered the opportunity to connect with our ancestors through the process of ritual. And, at that moment in time, in this preparation, there is no other more important thing. We become connected to the sauna, to the ritual, to it.
Visiting other saunas, especially those “very special” places, we connect with the hosts with appreciation of the practice, the ritual, that prepared the space for our visit. We connect, by proxy, to the builder that felled or collected the trees, quarried or carried the stone, and assembled the parts. We connect to the löyly and the heat.
Maybe this experience is a “silent” sauna, that provides the space and opportunity to connect with our own bodies, mind, and breath. An opportunity to just “be”. Perhaps it’s a public sauna in the heart of the city, where conversations evolve with the löyly, and ebb and flow of people coming and going.
We connect with ourselves and each other.
We are connected with nature; with the earth beneath our feet on our journey to the lake, or to cool outside, with the branches used for vihta (or vasta), and the environment that surrounds us. Earth, fire, and water.
Niemi-Kapee
Community
The World Sauna Forum brings us together to listen, learn, and engage. We cross cultural boundaries and learn about the aspirations, projects and achievements that are shaping the future of sauna experiences around the world. We are connecting as a global community.
At the North American Sauna Society (NASS), we carry these connections forward to preserve traditional cultural practices, while promoting and broadening Finnish sauna experiences in North America and beyond.
We are connected.
Attendee countries of origin at this year’s WSF
We invite you to join our growing community of sauna enthusiasts. Visit our website, or contact us for more information. Follow us on social media to stay updated on upcoming events, and be sure to check out The Upper Bench podcast!
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For information about the North American Sauna Society visit: https://www.saunasociety.org
For information about the World Sauna Forum visit: https://www.saunafromfinland.com