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The local government in the Estonian town of Rakvere has organised the Estonian sauna festival – there will be more than 20 Estonian saunas to try out over the weekend of 8-9 June 2019. Rakvere in Lääne-Viru County, northeast Estonia, is the fifth largest town in the country. The central …
Estonians can do almost anything online from anywhere – including choose their parliament in just a few clicks.
Voting is currently taking place online for Estonia’s next parliament, Riigikogu, so instead of queuing up at a polling station, we enjoyed a sauna at home and thought it would be fun to demonstrate how easy it is to vote securely online while cooling off in ice-cold water.
First, a quick introduction. I’m a UK-born Estonian (hence the accent) and I work at Estonia’s e-residency programme with Alex and Reelika – my colleagues who are also in the video published here. As with voting, I wrote this article on my day off, though.
We already do almost everything else online, using our secure Estonian digital identities, which enable us to prove who we are online and provide legal signatures online. These are a key component of how our digital nation works and were introduced back in 2002 for citizens and residents. It works for e-services from both the public and private sector – from filing annual taxes in a few seconds to daily banking.
Estonia became the first country to introduce secure online voting (known as i-voting) back in 2005. This isn’t the same as mere electronic voting in other countries when a special machine is used inside the polling station instead of pen and paper.
Just 1.9% of Estonian voters used the digital option in 2005, although this had risen to 30.5% a decade later in our last parliamentary election. More importantly, overall voting turnout has remained steady even as it has declined in other countries.
By the way, Estonia didn’t build its digital nation just to be used by young and trendy tech enthusiasts. Digital solutions, like i-voting, are popular across all demographics and it particularly helps those in rural areas (and Estonia is one of Europe’s most sparsely populated countries) or those with less mobility, such as the elderly.
It will be interesting to see the response this time, but it is likely to be high. Many Estonian companies are now encouraging their staff to take ten minute breaks in order to vote (which is actually a minute to vote and nine minutes to enjoy a coffee) and even Facebook is sending us reminders this time:
Here’s what we had to bring with us into our icy, makeshift polling booth:
i-voting software. It takes just a few seconds to download the software onto our computer from valimised.ee. This bypasses the browser so we can vote securely.
A digital ID-card / mobile-ID. Estonians have the same digital identity for life, but the technology we use to manage that digital identity evolves over time. Digital ID cards, like the one Reelika is holding, are the most well-known globally because they are also used by our e-residents. However, I’m using my mobile phone because it has the ID certificates embedded into the sim card, which is called mobile-ID and is available to citizens and residents through their Estonian phone contracts. Either way, the digital ID system works in the same way with separate PIN codes for authenticating our identity and giving a signature.
Sense of humour. Please don’t comment to say voting during a sauna is silly! We know it is. The point is to give people an insight into Estonia and raise awareness of how governments everywhere can serve people more effectively online anywhere that is convenient to their people. We just happen to like saunas, too.
By the way, that water is so much colder than it looks!
Whether using a digital ID card or mobile-ID, the first step is to authenticate our identity.
I opened the i-voting software, then entered my phone number and my personal ID code. After that, both my phone and computer displayed a verification code simultaneously. I checked that they matched, then clicked “accept” on my phone before entering PIN1. That authenticated my identity and logged me in, so the next screen displayed my details, including which constituency I was voting in.
Anyone who wanted to pretend to be me would need my PIN numbers and my mobile phone. We also believe that basic “cyber hygiene” is essential for operating securely online, which is why I already changed my PINs before uploading this video just in case someone tried to analyse my thumb movements!
The next screen displays a list of parties and candidates for me to choose. I’ll be honest, I haven’t decided who to vote for yet, so I just picked a random candidate during the video.
Don’t worry, though – I’m not trivialising democracy! One useful feature of online voting is that we can vote as many times as we want and then each new vote overrides our previous vote. That means we can change our mind during the election period and can never be forced or bribed to vote a certain way. Actually, you can try to bribe me if you insist and I’ll just take your money then vote again afterwards for who I want!
No matter which candidate I choose, there’s one topic that isn’t a big issue in this election, though: our digital nation itself. Doing things instantly and securely online is just more efficient and gives us more time to focus on important stuff – regardless of which side of the political spectrum you fall on. Few people want to go back to paper.
I completed the voting process using my PIN2, which is for giving a legal signature. I already enter this PIN on a daily basis, such as to make a bank payment or sign a document.
After casting my vote, my phone beeped again, and I checked that the verification codes matched on both my computer and phone screens before clicking accept.
I then entered the PIN2 to complete the voting process. Cryptography is used to insert my ballot into a digital “double envelope” that guards the secrecy of my personal vote, similar to how it is done offline for postal voting. The outer digital envelope is used to transmit my vote to the electoral commission and then, the inner digital envelope is taken out and decrypted so it can be counted with my personal details removed.
The most fundamental component of our digital nation – including i-voting – is trust. Our digital nation will never be perfect because it’s continuously evolving, and risks need to be managed along the way.
Estonians don’t have blind faith in their government, but they trust digital solutions for two main reasons: their own experience of how it empowers them and their own knowledge of the checks and balances that are designed into the system. For example, citizens own their own data and we use blockchain-like technology in some cases to control access to it and punish any breaches of trust (such as a medical professional who has access to our health records). None of this is possible with paper, which is the real faith-based system of governance.
Just like with offline voting, Estonia welcomes election monitors who scrutinise the i-voting process. We can also scrutinise the process ourselves as voters. There’s a mobile app (separate to the mobile-ID) that anyone can download from the electoral commission to verify that our individual vote was correctly delivered. I simply scanned the code in the i-voting software, and it opens up my ballot that was securely delivered to the electoral commission to let me see what is inside.
Finally, there is the ultimate fallback. I-voting takes place before the actual polling day so if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the i-voting system has been compromised, then all digital votes will be nullified, and we must all go to the polls instead.
This would be a lot of hassle to us, but the integrity of our elections will always come first. Plus, this is what most people consider normal – if they are even fortunate enough to have a democratic vote.
Oh, and by the way, we did all this on the Republic of Estonia’s 101st independence day! Happy birthday, Estonia, and thank you to everyone who’s supported us along the way.
I
This is a lightly edited version of the article originally published by Adam Rang in Medium. You can follow Adam’s take on Estonian sauna culture also on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Cover: Adam Rang, Alex Wellman and Reelika Virunurm voting from their tub.
Nearly 800 competitors from 16 countries in 188 teams visited 19 saunas around one Estonian town on 2 February for the European Sauna Marathon 2019.
It was the biggest and craziest competition in its 10-year history, as well as the most high tech.
The registration began at 9am with queues stretching down the snow-covered street until noon in Estonia’s winter capital of Otepää. Once inside, each team was given a wrist band with a tracking chip and instructions to download a mobile app with a map of saunas across the area that they had to visit.
“Who is the most experienced person in your team with saunas?” asked one of the organisers sat behind a desk. My team mates pointed to me, so she strapped a tracking chip around my wrist. “OK,” she smiled. “So, you can keep on going if the others pass out.”
Competitors must spend three minutes in each leiliruum (hot room) and each tünnisaun (wood-fired hot tub) and nominate at least one team member to jump in each ice hole – and must try to remember to check in and out using their new wristbands unless they want to do half the course over again.
The race began in the centre of town at noon with teams setting off in five-minute intervals wearing a wide range of outfits as bizarre as the competition itself.
The first saunas on the list were portable ones arranged in the town centre especially for the occasion.
Even a group of firefighters from Karksi-Nuia, a small town near the Latvian border, had turned up with a disaster relief sauna tent and a plunge pool filled with ice-cold water. After climbing out, the fire fighters then doused the shivering competitors with warm-ish water from their hoses.
The final stop in the town centre was at the local pub, which had a sauna behind the bar and live folk music on stage to keep competitors dancing while waiting their turn to sweat it out. Not everyone was there for the sauna marathon though. Some were simply enjoying lunch as usual, seemingly oblivious to the half-naked revellers running around them.
After that, competitors jumped into their cars – without time to get dressed – and sped off to find the saunas across the countryside.
To be honest, the competition doesn’t require a great deal of athletic ability. Just orienteering and winter driving skills, the ability to briefly endure fairly extreme temperatures, and – perhaps most importantly – the ability not to take yourself too seriously along the way.
Even some of the cars were dressed for the occasion.
“I always thought people were running because it was a race,” explained my team mate, Adriano D’Ambrosio, while looking at photos of previous sauna marathons that he studied in preparation. “But I now realise that we have to run just because we are so very cold!”
The Sauna Marathon always takes place in the first weekend of February because that’s typically the coldest weekend of the year. Sauna owners not only have to keep their fires burning, but also ensure that their ice holes don’t freeze over.
The winners are selected randomly from among the teams that complete the course and are given a hot tub, among other prizes.
That might not sound particularly fair, but it’s a reminder not to take the competition too seriously (or break the speed limit by trying to reach the finish first). This year’s winner was team “Selfie”, if you happen to be interested.
The participants also have to rate the saunas in their app along the way – and this is where the real competition takes place.
This year’s favourite sauna among participants was “Mägestiku forell”, which received a prestigious plaque that they will be able to nail above their sauna door.
At this point in the article, I should probably tell you a bit more about this top-rated sauna after gleaning some information from their website. However, their website is so light on details that it took some time to even figure out which one it was.
After debating with my teammates afterwards, we eventually figured out that “Mägestiku forell” was the oval shaped sauna next to a bar serving delicious home-smoked food. This kind of bribery is perfectly within the rules (and spirit) of the competition.
The fact that Otepää’s (currently) number-one-rated sauna has no fancy website or much marketing to date is part of the reason for why the Sauna Marathon exists.
More than a decade ago, a local spa director named Indrek Vähi came up with the idea of a sauna orienteering game for the town’s winter festival. He wanted to involve not only his own luxurious Pühajärve Spa & Holiday Resort, but all kinds of different sauna owners and businesses because he recognised that they had a shared interest in bringing the community together and promoting the area’s sauna culture.
Estonia has a rich sauna culture that is older than records can recall, but it’s still not always very accessible to people visiting the country – 75% of whom never even leave Tallinn. The weirdest and most wonderful Estonian saunas are often difficult to find or are located inside people’s homes – to where invitations can take a while.
The first competition was such a success though that Sirje Ginter from the Otepää Cultural Centre, which is part of the local municipality, took over the organisation the following year and renamed the competition – rather ambitiously – as the ‘European Sauna Marathon’. Unlike other competitions (since banned) that encourage participants to stay inside the sauna for an unhealthy amount of time (which is totally stupid and against the point of a sauna), this competition aims to let participants make friends and see as many saunas as possible so that they can come back and enjoy them properly at their own leisure.
Vähi has sadly since passed away, yet his legacy has lived on beyond all expectations.
This year’s competitors came from the US, Mexico, Ecuador, the UK, Germany, Italy, Greece, Norway, Finland, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand and, of course, Estonia.
Some of the international guests live in Estonia already, but many travelled here just to take part.
The competition also attracted international media attention, including the BBC and Reuters, which both sent film crews to cover the event.
Team USA was comprised of a group of American women now living in Estonia to teach English, including Anna Blue from Washington, DC, who is also here to study the e-residency programme. She heard about the competition through our previous Estonian World article, which she then read in a Facebook group for e-residents of Estonia. Anna then rounded up her team, which included Alisa Redding from Texas.
“We agreed almost immediately because it sounded like a great opportunity to see the Estonian countryside and experience something truly Estonian,” said Redding. “It was much more fun than we expected and even though we didn’t make it to all the saunas, we loved the sense of friendship that we quickly developed with the other competing teams.”
This warm sense of friendship was a feeling echoed by many who took part.
Estonians are often regarded as quiet and reserved towards strangers, yet the sauna is where they open up and speak more loudly about any issues on their mind. It’s the opposite of some countries where saunas have a library-like atmosphere and talking there will result in ice cold stares from fellow bathers.
The Sauna Marathon brings that openness to a new level as the hundreds of competitors soon start making friends with each other, as Vähi had originally envisioned.
Towards the end, the fact that it was even a competition began to be forgotten as participants spent ever more time enjoying themselves leisurely at each sauna.
As for me, I was competing with Team Japan, which actually had just one Japanese member – Yushi Nakashima – while the rest of us wore traditional sumo-style Japanese underwear called fundoshi as part of a questionable attempt to fit in with him.
“It’s Yushi, like ‘sushi’,” our team captain said to introduce himself to fellow competitors while keeping them entertained inside each leiliruum along the way.
We arrived at one sauna that had no bucket for throwing hot water on the stones, so our fellow competitors were hopelessly trying to carry water from a nearby tap using just their hands.
“Let me try,” said Yushi. He stuck his hand under the tap to channel the water pressure into a spray, which then shot across the room in an arc and landed perfectly on the stones before sizzling away and filling the room with glorious leil (sauna steam).
“And that’s why Japan is such an advanced country,” one of the participants perched on a bench exclaimed in awe.
At the final sauna, we unsportingly decided to make full use of the facilities and so enjoyed a long warm shower before changing and returning to the finish line a few hours after the cut-off time, although just in time to arrive refreshed for the after party.
Ginter has since passed the baton for organising the Sauna Marathon to Jorma Riivald who has continued the excellent work of growing the competition, along with the municipality’s hard-working culture specialist, Merle Soonberg. In my opinion, they and their city are the real winners.
The popularity of the event poses interesting challenges for all of them. Tickets for this year’s competition sold out at record speed, but they are keen to preserve the quality of the competition for future participants rather than let it grow to ever bigger numbers.
There are interesting developments on the other side of the Estonian world, however.
Ingrid Sootla from the Chicago Estonian House has revealed that they are now planning their first “American Sauna Marathon” next year in 2020. They hope it will bring together the Estonian community in America and help them connect with other friends of Estonia and fans of saunas, even inviting e-residents to take part.
“Saunas are a very important part of Estonian culture,” Sootla said. “So it is very important to us to be able to pass that along to the next generation growing up outside Estonia.”
Watch this space.
I
Images courtesy of the European Sauna Marathon in Otepää and Adam Illingworth. This is a lightly edited version of the article originally published by Adam Rang in Medium. You can follow Adam’s take on Estonian sauna culture also on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.