More and more people are beginning to think of improving their emotional and physical state by natural means, returning to the ancient folk tradition of steaming in the bath. Visiting the bath, the health and inner peace of the person helps to stabilize the strength and warmth of the various bath brushes, which allows you to relax your body while feeling free.
Bath attendance is a process whereby the body is gradually accustomed to high temperatures in order to remove unnecessary substances from the body through sweating and to relieve muscle pain when warm. Not infrequently from looping to and from work, carrying heavy bags of food or first visits to the gym presses our muscles.
At one time the bath was visited for various purposes: religious, healing, bathing, recreational and social. What a Bath Is Today – Each bath has its own sacred place where someone can come for fun while another wants to renew their inner strength and arrange their thoughts.
Latvian bath life and traditions
History of Latvian bath
For the Latvian people, the bath is a long-established value and how much honor the bath was held – as evidenced by folk songs, beliefs, spelling words and tradition when going to the solstice.
Bath rituals begin with the mood and drinking herbal tea, with a wish for yourself. Warming and fluttering, as well as other procedures, provide a pleasant body relaxation and mind release from all that is accumulated, this is an effective therapy to relieve stress, anxiety and tension. Unfortunately, influenced by cultures of different nations, bath rituals are different and it is difficult to understand what Latvian bath traditions are, but some bath masters continue to develop their ancestral traditions in the bath.
For our people, bath has always been associated with health since ancient times.
Latvian bathhouse was a place where:
children were born,
healed various health ailments,
took care of beauty and youth,
looked into the future,
various rituals were performed.
Bath rituals
Once upon a time, the bath was an integral part of daily routine to clean and wash. People went to the bathhouse when there were great glories, like the birth of a baby, or sad when a man left the this world.
Nowadays, every bathman has his own ritual and art as he directs it, because there are no rules to follow the bath ritual.
It is advisable to introduce bath as a ritual as a tradition for people at solstice and before their birthday. This means that there are 5 whole rituals. Each solstice ritual has its own energy effect on the human being.
Birthday bath ritual, in turn, gives a person a unique opportunity to look and feel their beginnings through specially crafted bath procedures.
Bath location
A special place was given to the bath building in the Latvian farmstead. Folk traditions say that the bath buildinga is always built from wood to the location of the hedgerows, near the pond, to have a place to cool down, and also in the event of a fire to extinguish the flames if necessary.
Although nowadays baths are increasingly being planned inside the houses as a separate room. For safety’s sake, the bath is encouraged to be built as a separate building to reduce the risk of fire, but mainly to create a separate building with a dedicated energy supply, where all the day-to-day worries and savings are shed.
Modern Latvian bath
The modern Latvian bath is not fully comparable to our ancestral bath. Latvian bath have been perfected with the latvian bath traditions of other nations, which means that different types of bathes are available.
The bath can be both an entertainment place for a company of friends, relaxation after sports activities and a spa treatment for the body. Accordingly, the purpose of your visit is to relax, heal your health ailments, improve your appearance.
Black or smoke bath
These baths are special in that they are very natural. The black bath building itself is made of logs, and its roofing uses natural materials – reeds, shavings, moss turf, boards. Black baths have small windows, doors and ventilation vents in the walls. They do not have a flue. The furnace is a large pile of stones on which a boiler for water heating is placed, but under this pile firewood is burned to heat the stones.
Heated stones are the only source of heat in such a bath. The heat is even and equally strong. It is increased by casting a long shot on hot stones, skillfully sprinkling them with warm water.
During firing, smoke circulates through the room and soot builds up on the stones, ceilings and walls of the furnace, providing a sterile environment for the bath. Smoke contains formaldehyde, which is one of the best antiseptics. That is why our ancestors used such a bath as a birthing room, because it is the cleanest and safest place in the family home for mother and baby.
The costs of building a black bath house is one of the cheapest, but unfortunately there are not many craftsmen who can build a traditional black bath stove.
Why go to the bath from time to time?
Bath can provide well-being and peace of mind to people in their daily lives, as well as maintain a toned immunity helping against various health ailments.
The most valuable that the bath causes in our body is:
eliminates various toxic substances from the body;
relaxes and reduces all muscles in the body;
promotes metabolic function and improves blood circulation;
increases elasticity of joints and ligaments;
reduce the risk of varicose vein disease.
Everyone cares about their health. Everyone has a desire to feel uplifted and to love themselves.
Enjoy the magic of bath with the energy of nature and be healthy!