Winter Swimming AKA Lapland baptism

The ‘Lapland baptism’ is the not the usual kind which is referred to in a religious context, although it is somewhat done religiously in Lapland. Also known as Winter swimming involves submerging oneself in ice cold water for a small amount of time before exiting and usually entering the sauna.  

While in Finland I had the honour of being baptised in an unused freezing-cold Jacuzzi, a Lappi lake, the Baltic sea of Helsinki harbour and finally a plunge pool at a local spa. After submerging oneself in the water, you will experience the cold shock response, this will trigger rapid breathing. When you exit the water the body, there is a feeling of warmth due to the body attempting to adapt and warm the body in the cold-water temperatures.

Some scientific studies have demonstrated beneficial effects for winter swimming, these include:

One study compared to a control group on the profile of mood states rating scale, winter swimmers demonstrated that they experience less stress and fatigue as well as more vigour. They reported a better memory function, mood and more energy, active and brisk. Swimmers who suffer from pathologies such as: rheumatism, fibromyalgia, asthma reported that winter swimming relieves pain.

Winter swimmers have demonstrated that they do not contract diseases as often as the general population. The incidence of infectious diseases affecting the upper respiratory tract is 40% lower among winter swimmers when compared to a control group. Short term exposure of the whole body to cold water produces oxidative stress, which makes winter swimmers develop improved anti-oxidative protection.

Sources:

Huttunen, Pirkko; Kokko, Leena; Ylijukuri, Virpi (2004). "Winter swimming improves general well-being". International Journal of Circumpolar Health. 63 (2): 140–144. doi:10.3402/ijch.v63i2.17700. PMID 15253480.

Siems, W. G.; Brenke, R.; Sommerburg, O.; Grune, T. (1999). "Improved antioxidative protection in winter swimmers". QJM: An International Journal of Medicine. 92(4): 193–198. doi:10.1093/qjmed/92.4.193.

Different Finnish Saunas

There are many different types of sauna that can be found in Finland, after being in Finland for an extended amount of time I am now an expert! Saunas can be classified by the building itself or by what kind of stove it uses.

The main division of saunas is between saunas warmed once and continuously warmed sauna (stoves). All smoke saunas are warmed once.

Once warmed stoves have larger amount of stones that are warmed up before the session. This can be done by burning wood, with or without chimney, oil or natural gas. Continuously warmed stoves have lower amount of stones that are heated during the session. The warming can be done burning wood, oil or natural gas, or electrically.

The temperature in the saunas is between 60 to 100 °C.

Smoke sauna

The smoke sauna is known as the ‘savusauna’ in Finland. It is a special type of sauna that does not have a chimney. Wood is burnt in a large stove and the smoke fills the room. When the sauna is hot enough, the fire is allowed to die and the smoke is ventilated out. The residual heat of the stove is enough for the duration of the sauna. This represents the ancestral type of sauna, since chimneys came later in the history of the sauna.

Wood stove sauna

The wood stove sauna is the most common type of sauna outside of the city areas, where the electric sauna is more common. The metal stove with stones on top is heated with birch wood fire, and this heats the sauna room to the required temperature. If birch wood is not available any other wood will do, but well dried birch wood is preferred because of its good quality and smell, and long-lasting burn. The important thing is to have a good löyly, that is when the stones are hot enough to evaporate the water thrown on them into steam that rises to the bathers. The bather in every type of sauna sits on a high bench near the ceiling where the hot steam reaches them quickly.

Electric sauna

In city apartments, and in most public saunas, an electric sauna is used, as it does not require wood to burn. They are more practical and convenient since they are very simple to prepare, only a press of a button will do. Most apartment buildings in Finland include at least this type of sauna, or there is one for use by the occupants of a building, with dedicated hours for use for communal men's and women's sauna, and special hours for those who have requested apartment specific hours. Most Finns prefer a wood stove sauna to an electric sauna.

Finnish Culture - Lewis model

Richard Lewis developed a theory that humans can be divided into 3 clear categories based on behaviour. He named these categories linear-active, multi-active and reactive.

The Lewis Model is based on data drawn from 50,000 executives taking residential courses and more than 150,000 online questionnaires to 68 different nationalities and has produced the following tripartite comparison according to country.

 As you can see from the illustrations, Finland is situated between 'linear-active' and 'reactive'. These traits are clearly visible in their everyday life. On the chart above you can see that the U.K and Finland are both going towards linear-active, an attribute that you can clearly see the difference with while in Finland is that people are more patient to hear others view and would never interrupt, whereas English people are talking half the time and will sometime interrupt if they believe their point is valid. I have also never seen a Finn become emotional over a topic, in England it's common for people to get angry quite easily and they will not hide this. Although these are some of the differences, we also have many similarities such as being job oriented, limited use of body language, polite and direct.

(https://www.crossculture.com/latest-news/the-lewis-model-dimensions-of-behaviour/)

Lapland - Rovaniemi

The group included my girlfriend Marzia, Romy, Salome and Iris who are also Erasmus students, participating in different courses. We departed from Turku, Friday 10^th November and we were all definitely excited for the path ahead of us! The first stop in our itinerary was Oulu. This drive was around 7-8 hours for us so we arrived late in the evening and did not get to see much. There was already a noticeable temperature change as we drove further north and the ice had made the roads slightly more challenging, but that was not a problem for myself and Romy. 

We did not see much of the city of Oulu, as we continued to our furthest destination as quickly as possible. The next stop was Roveniemi, which if you know Lapland then it’s likely you have heard of Roveniemi. It is the home of Santa Claus and there is a dedicated town for him.

Roka street food is a restaurant I can recommend to anyone. It was there that I had possibly the most delicious sandwich in the world. It was a Reindeer sandwich with lingonberry jam, coleslaw, salad  –http://www.ravintolaroka.fi/en

We also drove to Santa's village in the afternoon. It was a nice place, but it was quite commercial for me with a lot of shops and not too many people or activities. I would therefore not recommend it.