Quote:[align=justify]“When our relatives first moved here from Finland at the turn of the 20th century, they found that after a while, their viili culture weakened, so they wrote to their relatives back home. The women there soaked clean rags in viili—”
“Not rags,” Miriam interjects. “Probably something handwoven. Weaving is very important to Finnish culture.”
“Right, woven cloths. They soaked them in viili, dried them in the sun until they were stiff, and then mailed them to Wolf Lake.”

Quote:“You have time for a sauna?” Tyyni asks, pointing to the whitewashed building across the driveway, its chimney puffing steam. Built in the 1930s, the sauna has the traditional two rooms: a front changing room, lit by a kerosene lamp, and a dark back room lit by a curtained window and a raging woodstove fire. Usually, men and women sauna separately, in the nude. Today, the little boys volunteer, in swim trunks for my benefit, and scamper in. Tyyni drops grapefruits into the snow to chill and says, “So refreshing after a sauna.”

Wolf Lake is in Northern Minnesota, USA.

Just an interesting bit of history some here might find interesting including keeping the traditional sauna alive, but the Minnesota teenage boys put a twist on it. lol

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-m...ket-newtab

That was interesting, thank you for posting it!  

It sounds pretty much like folks from here   I grew up on viili, in fact I need to get some at the store right now. I haven't had it in a long time.

Quote:

“What does viili mean in Finnish?” I ask, my crush on this yogurt progressing from flirtation to full-blown love by the third spoonful.

“Wild,” Miriam says. And it is.

It doesn't mean wild. Wild is villi in Finnish, not viili. Viili is just viili