30/10/2026
Hiisi Remembers
On the eve of All Saints' Day, the Hiisi smoke sauna was heated once again for a public sauna evening. Jope and Yrjö took care of the heating, together with the sauna elf. Heating a smoke sauna is slow work that cannot be rushed. When darkness settles over the forest and the fire has done its work, the sauna is ready.
The name Hiisi is no coincidence. In old Finnish tradition, a hiisi was a sacred place, often a grove in the forest where ancestors were remembered. At kekri, the old Finnish harvest festival, when the year turns and the boundary between worlds is said to grow thin, the name feels more fitting than ever.
Over five years, a regular group has formed on the benches of Hiisi, and some of its members are no longer with us. One of our most faithful sauna companions, and our dog Timppa, were part of the group and are now gone. Tonight we remembered them too. The sauna needs no grand words; silence and löyly are enough.
Before the sauna, we took a memorial candle to Hugo, my grandfather, after whom this whole place is named. The same thought carries from the candle to the sauna: this place exists thanks to those who were here before us.
At Hiisi, the peace of the sauna is kept by the heaters and the sauna elf, by the bathers looking out for one another, and by the memory that no one ever fully disappears from the group.
