Our third site to visit was Ms. Eda Veeroja’s home and business headquarters, “Mooska Farm”. While showing us the farm, she continued to educate us. “This farm has three saunas. One of them is only for smoking meat, the other two are for bathing. We use the ones meant for bathing once a week to relax our minds and bodies, to have a family event or to invite other community people to socialize. By the way, one of the saunas is still new but the other is old and powerful”.
“We believe that sauna accumulates power when it is used. For us, sauna is a sanitary place but also a holy place, where people are born and where caring for the sick is done and it is important to be able to bath in a sauna, which has been a stage for many momentous rituals”.
With the help of her explanation, we started to grasp that sauna evidently was a place which had a special meaning to the Võry people. The reason why these saunas were inscribed as intangible cultural heritage seemed to loom into view but this was a matter that couldn’t be comprehended by mere observation.
TO BE CONTINUED