A Nativity Story
Finnish women in the 19th century often gave birth in the sauna. Even Finnish immigrants to the U.S. did this. Last winter, I met a man who was born in the family’s old smoke sauna in Michigan. The sauna has a long tradition among Nordic peoples for being a place for women to labor and give birth in warmth and privacy. An intriguing illustration from Russia, 1850, shows a woman giving birth in the banya. It could just as easily be a scene from Finland or Sweden in the same era.
In Finnish tradition, the sauna has always been a place of life and death ruled by women. In the warm embrace of the sauna women have given birth, cared for the ill, adorned the brides to be, and finally faced death.
[Council of Europe/ The Women’s Sauna]
In the Russian illustration (above), ostensibly showing a peasant woman giving birth in the banya. The caption reads, Жизнь роженицы с новорожденным в бане / Life of a mother in labor with a newborn in a bathhouse. I know nothing about the illustrator (the name KOH is discernible in the corner) or the provenance of this image (I found it online here) but in it I see a version of the Nativity scene, a depiction of the birth of Jesus. It is likely an expression of a long tradition in Europe of creating Nativity scenes and adapting them to local culture.
In an outbuilding a mother is resting on a bed of straw; she has just given birth. However this is not a stable for the farm animals. This is a banya, a bastu, a sauna or bath house. The walls are smokey dark and steam curls through the air as a procession of women–not wise men– enter bringing offerings of food to nourish the woman after her labor. The woman’s children stand by wondering and observing the ritual. Where is the baby? A manger stands warming by the banya stove but is empty, a length of swadling unwinds from it to the floor. A bucket of water, like a baptismal font, stands nearby. On the upper bench, a crone-like woman, or as the Swedes might have called her en klok gumma, a wise woman, acting as midwife, holds a tiny naked baby in one hand. In her other hand, she raises a venek, a bundle of leafy twigs, to strike the baby’s back to stimulate a lusty cry and proof of life. This is the moment between life and death. The bath house is a place for birth, death, hope and humanity.
Christmas is a swirling mixture of old folk beliefs, the celebration of Christ’s birth and new secular interpretations. What are we supposed to get out of this ancient and persistently popular tradition? I think that sauna at this time of year is just the place for us to meditate in a warm, womb-like space; to nourish and care for self and others and to renew our brave selves. It’s cold and dark at times
Good wishes for all,
Lisa
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