You were supposed to be quiet in the Christmas sauna

In traditional Finnish Christmas celebrations, the Christmas sauna was more than just a way to wash up before the festive meal. The sauna was heated well in advance on Christmas Eve so that everyone in the household could bathe before the evening festivities began. Taking a sauna during the day was part of the preparations: people would start the Christmas celebrations feeling clean and refreshed.

The Christmas sauna was also accompanied by rules, some of which sound strange to modern ears. One was supposed to be quiet in the sauna. Making noise, talking, or acting restlessly had no place in a moment that was considered festive and special. This silence was also linked to a belief about the coming year. If you managed to stay silent in the Christmas sauna, you might avoid pests the following year. In other traditional accounts, the same idea is linked to summer mosquitoes: a talkative bather in the Christmas sauna would be plagued by them.

Silence was not the only rule of the Christmas sauna. Late-night saunas were avoided, as nighttime saunas were associated with unsettling superstitions and the possibility of hauntings. It was also believed that the sauna had its own guardian spirit or elf, which is why one had to behave properly there. After the household members had left, the sauna might still be occupied by unseen bathers.

The silence in the Christmas sauna was therefore both a matter of etiquette and a precaution. People sat quietly in the steam, spoke very little, and the Christmas celebrations didn’t begin until after the sauna.