Baths - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Religion

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 11 pages of information about Baths.

Baths - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Religion

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 11 pages of information about Baths.
This section contains 2,958 words
(approx. 10 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Baths Encyclopedia Article

BATHS in a religious context are sacred places where people bathe not for hygienic purposes, but rather to spiritually re-create themselves in both mind and body. Spiritual bathing may take place in sacred spaces in nature, for example in hot springs or in the water of a sacred river such as the Ganges or Nile, or in buildings made out of stone (Roman baths) or wood (saunas).

Sauna is a Finnish and Sami word for a building where one bathes for the purpose of cleansing body and mind. It has somewhat varied meanings, including commercial and erotic ones, in communities without a history of sauna culture. Sauna has been part of the Finnish life cycle for thousands of years—and, at the dawn of the third millennium, it still is, both in Finland, with its 2.2 million saunas for 5.2 million people (in 2004), and among expatriate and emigrant Finns.

Saunas...

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This section contains 2,958 words
(approx. 10 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Baths Encyclopedia Article
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Macmillan
Baths from Macmillan. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.