Hot off the presses: Finland hosts 24-hour sauna relay session for World Happiness Day

Imagine being able to spend your day relaxing in a sauna - sitting next to friends, with your body loose and comfortable beside the warm glow of the heaters.

Regardless of the weather outside, with the sauna door closed and the steam settings on, the world seems far away… and you can just enjoy the moment where you prioritize your health and happiness before anything else.

Well, for the Finns, this isn't just a daydream - and their sauna-loving culture is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why they are consistently rated by the UN as the happiest country in the world.

And to celebrate Finland's ninth time receiving the award, Hanken Business Lab in Helsinki decided to host a record-breaking marathon session that reflects the sauna's benefits for personal wellbeing, hygiene, community, health, and tradition.

An incredible total of 150 participants took part in this "Nordic Saunathon" event on 20 March - International Day of Happiness - where they spent a collective total of 24 hours and six minutes in the heated room, officially granting them the Guinness World Records title for the longest sauna session marathon relay ever.

"In short, the Nordic Saunathon is about turning the world's happiest region into the world's most visible celebration of collective wellbeing, one uninterrupted sauna session at a time," said the organizers.

In Finland, the sauna is used for everything from Saturday night hangouts to healing sessions spent dripping sweat.

The history of these steam rooms dates back thousands of years, with holes dug in embankments, gradually evolving into the sophisticated spa buildings that we think of today. Early saunas were heated with rocks toasted by a campfire and splashed with water to create steam, while later versions across different continents may use open flames or electric wiring.

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Besides the health benefits of the sauna, many Finns also consider the experience culturally significant, as it demonstrates their values for collaboration, openness, and mutual respect.

Many people go to the sauna multiple times a week, and with over three million steam rooms in the entire country, there are enough saunas in Finland for all 5.5 million residents to go at the same time!

As such, it wasn't hard to find participants for Hanken's sauna session attempt - and on 20 March, dozens of eager attendees showed up in Helsinki for the big event.

The Hanken Business Lab has a wide network, as they are associated with the Hanken School of Economics, and work as a startup incubator for its resident entrepreneurs. Through their mentoring, workshops, community-building activities - and access to resources in both Helsinki and Vaasa - they have a wide network, and a number of the sauna participants were associated with the lab.

"Helsinki provides a culturally authentic setting for this attempt and this record title gives us international visibility, while reinforcing the connection between sauna, wellbeing, and Nordic identity," said the organizers.

To make sure that the record was safely completed, participants were rotated on shifts in the sauna, where each person spent roughly 5-10 minutes in the heat before exchanging places with the next.

Guinness World Records Adjudicator Joanne Brent was present to make sure that each person met the five-minute minimum, and that the hand-off took less than 10 seconds - as well as monitoring the temperature inside the sauna at all times.

Nevertheless, all went smoothly - and between 4 p.m. on 19 March and 4:06 p.m. on the 20th, the participants had taken the record!

"Turning something of such cultural significance into a shared endurance challenge was a perfect way to underscore their ranking in happiness, and the factors that contribute to it," said Joanne. "There was an abundance of team spirit from both sides: the organizers and facilitators, as well as the participants.

"There was a very real link between the community and wellbeing that Finland is known for, and what I saw over the last 24 hours."

So congratulations to everyone that took part in this incredible sauna attempt - you are all Officially Amazing!