Midsummer

The most important festival in Finland after Christmas is the midsummer festival, which is called juhannus. The Finns decamp en masse to the countryside, typically to their mökki, a summer cabin in the forest, often by a lake. Juhannus is spent cooking food on the barbecue, taking a dip in a lake and having sauna. The kokko, or bonfire, is lit at midnight on midsummer. Sometimes some of the single women present will head off to find seven different types of wild flower - these are placed under the pillow, and supposedly the woman will then dream of her future husband.

In the sauna the most important thing is löyly - the steam that carries the heat from the stove stones to the sauna bathers. However, the word is also used to describe the feeling or spirit of the sauna. The stove is called a kiuas, and the highest bench you sit on is the laude. All these terms apply only to the sauna, and are really only rough translations.

Finally, if you want to cause an argument in a sauna, ask for the name of the birch switches that sauna bathers use to (gently) beat the back, arms and legs, to improve blood circulation and gain benefit from the antiseptic properties of the birch leaf sap on them. Some Finns call them vihta, and others call them vasta. You can almost guarantee you'll have at least one from each camp in the sauna with you and they will spend then next hour or so violently disagreeing which is the correct name.