The Latvian sauna is the pirts, and its whisks have a school. At Pirts skola, two semesters make you a pirtnieks, a bath attendant. Four make you a bath master. By 2016 it was an official occupation, and Latvia had about ten of them.

The ritual has stages: greeting the sauna, the great whisking, honey time. A thousand years old? The leading book on it admits there is no single concrete historical source. And a bath master says: back then, people went more to wash. Now whisks are used much more. We are learning.

Even the old folk beliefs cannot agree. Leave your whisk on the bench, so the goddess Laima can bathe. Never leave it on the bench, or the devil will bathe.

The pirts is old. The ritual is being rebuilt, carefully, with a diploma.

In Finland we cannot even agree what to call the whisk. Vihta or vasta?

Which one do you say?

Sources: Pirts skola, pirtsskola.lv (the courses and the pirtnieks and bath master titles); LSM, 14 August 2016 (the bath master's trade in Latvia's occupational classification, about ten professionals; bath master Sandra Litke); Ričards Batarags, Latviskais pirts rituāls (the stages; "we have no single concrete historical source"); the folk beliefs as quoted on pirtslietas.lv. Translations are ours. Vihta and vasta: Kotus, and Yle's 2026 survey.
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