Excerpt
I See Dead People in the Sauna
In Finland, seeing dead people in the sauna is a holiday tradition. Every Christmas Eve afternoon, happy Finns everywhere heat up the family sauna for a long, sweaty soak with their dearly departed ancestors. As the sun slowly sets over the fjords, the spirits of the deceased return to the homeland sauna for some quiet quality time with the family before the hectic holiday officially begins.
For Finns, the sauna is the sacred center of family life, where babies are born and the sick are healed and the dead come back for a little R&R every Yuletide. Afterward, families often go to church and then to the cemetery, where they light candles on the graves of their deceased relatives and loved ones so that they can find their way back to their eternal sleep by the glow of the twinkling lights in the darkening evening.
It’s enough to make you sweat.