Sauna

A sauna (/ˈsɔːnə/ or /ˈsaʊnə/;Finnish pronunciation: [ˈsɑunɑ]) is a small room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. Saunas can be divided into two basic types: conventional saunas that warm the air or infrared saunas that warm objects. Infrared saunas may use a variety of materials in their heating area such as charcoal, active carbon fibers, and other materials.

Etymology

The word sauna is an ancient Finnish word referring to the traditional Finnish bath and to the bathhouse itself. In Baltic-Finnic languages other than Finnish, sauna does not necessarily mean a building or space built for bathing. It can also mean a small cabin or cottage, such as a cabin for a fisherman.

History

In Mexico and Central America, more specifically in the highlands of central and southern Mexico and Guatemala, there is a version of the sauna indigenous to the Americas, called a temazcal. It is the Mexican, Central American version of the sweat lodge used by indigenous peoples of the Americas, though the temazcal is usually made of clay or stone rather than wood.

Sauna (Mount Eerie album)

Sauna is the seventh full-length album by Mount Eerie (aka Phil Elverum). It was released on February 3, 2015.

Concept

Upon announcing Sauna, Phil Elverum said that the album was inspired by "Vikings and zen and real life". On his label's website, Elverum had this to say about the title:

"The sauna that this album was inspired by is not a sauna that actually exists anywhere. It is about the idea of a small man-made wooden room crushed beneath a universe’s worth of bad weather; a concentration of extreme heat within a vast tough world. Inside this deliberate space a transformation occurs. The exaggerated atmosphere of flames, steam, smoke and dim light obliterate the usual sensations and new kinds of perception are exposed. Then the shocking plunge under cold water and the razor sword through sky."

"All of the song titles are single words and some of the songs are very long," he said in a press release, "This is music meant to weigh heavy on you like a lot of cold water at night, and also the sword glimmering at the bottom of the lake at night.”

Sauna (film)

Sauna, also known as Filth or Evil Rising, is a 2008 Finnish horror film directed by Antti-Jussi Annila.

Plot

In 1595, after a long war between Sweden and Russia, brothers Knut and Eerik are marking the border between Finland and Russia. When they are crossing a swamp, a young girl, whom they left to die earlier, begins to haunt them. The brothers, seeking forgiveness, arrive at village, where they find a sauna that may help them to wash their sins away.

Cast

References

External links