The Sauna Is Not Political: One of the Last Sacred Spaces

There's something you need to understand about the sauna: it's not political.

It's not written on the wall. There's no sign at the door. But it's understood—the way certain things are just known in spaces that matter. The sauna is one of the last places where this just isn't where you talk about politics. And that's not a rule. It's not even a guideline. In Finnish culture, they'd bristle at calling it a "rule" at all. It's etiquette. It's understanding. It's knowing how to be.

The Finnish Way

In Finland, the sauna has a set of unspoken principles that govern behavior. Not rules—Finns are careful about that distinction—but a shared cultural understanding of how things are done. Politics doesn't enter the sauna because the sauna exists outside those divisions. It's a space of equality, vulnerability, and presence. In the heat, the usual markers of status, ideology, and identity fade into the steam.

This isn't enforced. It's simply how it is.

The American Problem (And It's Not What You Think)

A recent New York Times article suggested that Americans aren't using saunas the way they were intended to be used. And you know what? They're onto something. But the article misses the deeper issue.

Americans don't have access to public saunas where they can learn the etiquette. We don't have the Nordic wellness infrastructure—the public bathhouses, the neighborhood saunas, the communal spaces where you observe, absorb, and understand the unwritten code. So what happens? People take their private sauna behavior—which is perfectly fine in a home setting—and bring it to public spaces. It's not malicious. It's just ignorance in the truest sense: they simply don't know.

And how could they? Where would they learn?

The Need for Public Wellness Spaces

You can't fault Americans for not understanding sauna etiquette when we've never built the cultural infrastructure to teach it. Finland has public saunas woven into the fabric of daily life. We have... a few upscale spas and some gym locker rooms.

The solution isn't to scold Americans for "doing it wrong." The solution is to create authentic Nordic-style public wellness spaces where the etiquette can be learned through experience and observation. Places where the culture of the sauna—the communal respect, the understanding that this is a space apart from the noise of daily life—can be absorbed naturally.

Why It Matters

The sauna being apolitical isn't about avoiding difficult conversations. It's about creating sanctuary. In a world that feels increasingly divided, where every space seems to demand you take a side, the sauna offers something rare: a place to just be. Together. In heat. In shared humanity.

That's not escapism. That's essential.

We need spaces like this. Spaces where the things that typically divide us dissolve in the steam. Where the etiquette isn't about rules or restrictions, but about mutual respect and presence. Where politics—and all the noise that comes with it—stays outside the door.

The sauna is not political. And that might be one of the most important things about it.

This is part of The Sauna Practice, an ongoing exploration of authentic Nordic wellness culture and what it means to bring these traditions to American life.