How should a foreign guest who visits Finland respond to offer of the next content: you are invited to a little room heated to almost 100 Cº, where you will sit for a while totally undressed and sweat, bestead by other people of the similar appearance. Still naked you will go outdoors after that and sink into a small ice-hole on a lake, the river and suchlike, and refresh yourself in the freezing water or roll in the snow as an alternative. In other words: "What about a sauna?"
There is no reason for hesitation. Muster your courage and say "yes" - otherwise you will lose a deliciously relaxing experience which will endow with a fundamental understanding of mentality and culture of your Finnish hosts.
 Finnish word “sauna” has its long regular habit in the usual lives of Finnish folk. As long as two thousand years ago they were using saunas. There are over one million saunas in Finland by now, which approximately equals to a relative amount of one sauna for every five Finns! They attach great importance to a sauna. Large companies and state establishments have their own saunas. The president has his official sauna, as well as the prime minister. They occur in rural cottages and in city apartments. This is fine place to relax and have a good time in company, let alone getting clean. Significant business deals conclude in the sauna indeed as often happens. In comparison with an official meeting such activity might seem a bit strange, though the situation is more relaxed in a sauna and brings to a positive result.
Most people have wrong idea about the Finnish sauna when suppose that it is a dry heat bath. Actually, all such saunas have a container of rocks heated by the stove, and Finns throw water on these hot stones to heat up the sauna, in other words – create "löyly", i.e. rash gust of steam that produces a moist heat within the room. The steam increases relative humidity in the sauna to about forty percent. It amplifies the feeling of heat and makes you sweat. Lack of moisture may provoke, incidentally, the irritation of the mucous membranes due to excessive heat. Russian analog to the Finnish sauna makes the same in that case. "Banya" is a hot vapor bath, renowned for its cleansing, relaxing, and beauty-conductive effects. Moscow solely figures more than fifty of large "banyas" with room that allows admitting up to seventy people at once.
In Finland one can decide among three types of saunas. On account of convenience some people prefer a modern sauna with an electric heater which is popular enough. In rural areas sauna with a wood burning heater is still a more prevalent type. However that may be a lot of people favor this type rather than the electrically heated one. A smoke sauna, the third type, has a massive wood burning heater, and release smoke into the sauna out of the burning wood. Before making use of the sauna, the smoke is emitted through a small vent. Notwithstanding the fact that this type of sauna is becoming uncommon, it can still be found in occurrence.
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