During my
years of living in and travelling in Russia, I really learned to enjoy one of
their most treasured social pastimes – the banya.
The banya is the Russian version of
sauna, but it is much more than just a sauna. It is an institution. It is an
important social glue. It is also what close friends do together. In the heat of the
banya, friendship is forged. Here everybody is on equal terms. There is a Russian saying - In the banya there are no generals. In this naked reality there are no uniforms, no stars. In Old Russian
wedding tradition the groom would carry the bride into the banya for a first steam bath together to give the marriage a good
start. One could say that “people that sweat together, stick together”, wether
newly weds or friends.
Why the banya has gotten to play such a central role in
Russian social life, has to do with traditional village life. Russia is a cold
country with long freezing winters and which has an abundance of snow and wood. Until recent they often had no running water in
the villages, even less warm
water. In the heat of the banya you
can regain the upper hand over the cold. You also get clean as you wash yourself in the heated water. It was therefore in old times also the chosen place
for childbirth.
There are
many rituals connected to this bath. You start carefully, get heated up, go
outside, to chill a bit and then return for a tougher round. The harder you bathe, the harder you chill, either through immersing your self in cold water or rolling in the snow. For real hard baths it is common to wear hats and even mittens as protection against overheating. After that it is time to cool off. I have personally rolled in the snow in
temperatures down to -45C. And then in again! The water that is poured on the hot rocks forms into searing steam. The steam can contain essences that will clear you airways as you
breathe it in. And then it is time for the whipping. For this whisks of birch
leaves are used. They are dipped into hot water to soften up. As you are beaten,
the leaves bring heat to your skin, which is then refreshed. It also serves as a form of massage. The aroma
of the leaves is very pleasant and refreshing as well.
There are
legends, as old as the Russian Ortodox church, about how the Apostle Andrew
visited the northern shores of the Black Sea to preach among the Greek colonies
there and then continued north into Slavic lands up along the river Dniepr as
far as to Novgorod. "I saw the land of
the Slavs, and while I was among them, I noticed their wooden bathhouses. They
warm them to extreme heat, then undress, and after anointing themselves with
tallow, they take young reeds and lash their bodies. They actually lash
themselves so violently that they barely escape alive. Then they drench
themselves with cold water, and thus are revived. They think nothing of doing
this every day, and actually inflict such voluntary torture on themselves. They
make of the act not a mere washing but a veritable torment."
It might be
difficult to verify the truth of these stories, but these words very well
describe my own and my fellow missionaries’ common first impressions of our
first confrontations with the banya.
Very soon though, we learnt to appreciate it very much. It kept us warm during
the ice-cold winters and there lifelong friendships were born. Many deep and
sincere spiritual talks we have had there after services. The banya is not only part of Russian
culture and history; it is definitely a part of the Russian revival we have
experienced.
