Sauna baths level the playing field and promote respect between people.
The Finnish Ministry of Culture writes this on its website.
UNESCO's choice to promote Finnish sauna culture as an intangible cultural heritage is due to a centuries-old tradition in a country where 90 percent are estimated to have access to a sauna.
The UN's cultural body counts 3.3 million saunas for 5.5 million inhabitants.
- In the 90s, I know that it was two million.
Then I wrote a book about the Finnish sauna culture.
The whole 90's I was in the sauna.
It is difficult to summarize the culture because there is so much: steam, hammam, Russian banja ..., says Arja Saijonmaa.
"Diseases disappear in the wake"
She is a member of the Finnish Sauna Society and prefers 120 degrees, carbon black, smoky and at least five breaks for winter swimming.
Incipient diseases disappear in the ice.
I finally say - it's finally a World Heritage Site!
It is the combination of tranquility and nature that makes the sauna culture so special, thinks Arja Saijonmaa.
And then the tradition.
- It is my source of health and my source of beauty.
I have been to the Russian border and experienced Karelian magic, read all about giving birth in the sauna ... My mother has taught me to tie the ultimate sauna broom.
The sauna is the church.
UNESCO's new list of intangible cultural heritage, for example, also includes the dish couscous, after four countries: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania, nominated it.
Like the sauna, food is a way to gather and bring people closer to each other.
Correction: An earlier version of the article stated that the Finnish sauna culture is now classified as a World Heritage Site. That's not true.