Hold the leil

The Kadrina Sauna/klubi (club) in Lääne-Viru county, northern Estonia announced that their saun (Estonians drop the A from the end of the Finnish word) is temporarily closed. But they will open esimesel võimalusel, the first chance they get. This is the unfortunate case with kogukondlikud (communal, (plural)) saunad.

The club’s motto is “Vihaga, kuid vihata”, meaning “With a sauna whisk, but without anger”. Anger as in vihtlemine (beating yourself with the whisk of twigs) in too intense a manner? It’s actually a play on words. The switch of birch branches is vihta (or vasta) in Finnish and viht in Estonian with the possessive or genitive case being viha (the whisk’s / switch’s). E.g. Värske viha lõhn oli imeline – the smell of the fresh whisk was heavenly. But viha is also the word for the emotion known as anger, its nominative and genitive case.

You should never enter a saun in an angry mood (vihaga), but you should have a kosutav (invigorating) experience with a whisk of branches (vihaga) that has soaked in warm water in a kapp. No, not a cupboard, more like a cup, but bigger, a small wooden bucket. Without a doubt, you will leave the leili/ruum (steam room) or sauna/lava (“platform”) vihata – void of any feelings of anger. Nor will you take the viht with you; you will leave without the whisk (vihata).

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Notice from Kadrina Saunaklubi’s Facebook page.