OTTOBRE design® winter 6/2022

Crisp snow crunched under my felt slippers as I trotted down a narrow path. My dad, who was following me, told me to hurry up, so I wouldn’t get cold. I was only wearing a red-checked sauna robe that my mom had sewn, carrying a rolled-up waffle towel under my arm. In the dark at the bottom of the yard, a warm sauna awaited, with a beckoning candle shining through its window. A familiar, lovely smell of a birch whisk wafted out as we opened the sauna door.

Dark, clear winter evenings were the most beautiful thing I knew. Thousands of stars twinkled in the sky. I could already spot the Big Dipper, and by following the “lines” between its individual stars I was able to find the bright North Star. Sometimes I could also see the aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, which were traditionally believed to be caused by an arctic fox running across the fells and whipping up sparks with its tail as it hit the snow. If one whistled loud enough, the aurora would start swaying like a field of grain in a breeze – at least we children believed that.

Once I and my cousins had been bathed and scrubbed in the sauna, we ran as fast as we could back to grandma’s house, our sauna robes tightly wrapped around us and our towels twisted into turbans around our wet hair. Grandma had just baked sweet buns and served us hot cocoa from rose-patterned cups. Occasionally we could share a small bottle of banana soda as a special treat. After the sauna and supper, it was lovely to curl up under thick blankets to listen to a bedtime story. My favorite was “The Birch and the Star” by Zachris Topelius, one of Finland’s national authors. The bliss of a Saturday evening was complete.

I wondered why these memories from decades ago came to my mind right now. I didn’t even remember much about that story – only that a brother and sister wandered in a forest looking for a certain birch. The one through the branches of which a star used to light up their home garden. I also remembered that, regardless of the presumably happy ending, the story had a sad undertone and that mom wiped tears from the corners of her eyes as she was reading.

After googling for a while I realized why these memories had come back to me. The difficult times we are living in now evoked recollections of the wood-fired sauna, grandma’s house and that specific bedtime story. The life events of the author’s great-grandfather three centuries ago could have taken place in today’s world. Marlene Dietrich sang “Wann wird man je verstehen?” on a scratchy record my high-school German teacher used play. There’s a good reason for asking that question again: When will we ever learn?

It's now our turn to take care of our own little ones. We can fill their lives with soft, loving things – self-made bathrobes (we Finns always call them sauna robes), warm underwear, fairytale-like dresses and corduroy vest and pants sets. There will never be too much warmth and intimacy in this world.

Love and peace to you this winter,

Ottobre Editorial Team