I'm an Icelander and I quite like this article, it is one of the better written pieces I have seen on a cultural phenomenon I relate with - and it is no exaggeration, swimming pools are quite central to our culture. I have two young kids and I take them to an outdoors swimming pool nearly every week, also in the wintertime. Since I live in the capital area we have a few swimming pools to choose from and we rotate between them.
The title hints that this is the reason for the country's high score in happiness surveys such is this one: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/denmark-happi... . While I don't think it's that simple I can forgive the author, the title "A survey on Icelandic swimming pool culture" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Usually when I see these surveys the first question that pops up is "How do they measure that?" and it seems journalists generally are not to keen on pursuing that question.
My point is that isolating one thing from a culture and pinning that down as a "cause for happiness" seems a bit silly to me. But apart from that the article is pretty accurate.
I did car trip around Iceland few years ago in may, having most of inner part still unreachable due to metres of snow. Running tiny Chevrolet Spark in places like Western fjords on their dirt roads with meeting car overy 1-2 hour, good memories. Communal pools could be found in most small villages around, I recall a big one in Akureyri, second largest city (population 18,000). Definitely part of the culture and considering overall ridiculous prices there, pretty cheap.
But all pools are standard treated clean water although whole island has natural hot springs with bluish hot water coming straight form he ground all over it (it's basically like a big volcano all over). Very few places to enjoy those. I guess tourists want to have different experiences than those living there.
I love Iceland. I visited only once, but I might go back again in July. It would be great to connect to some HN Icelanders that live there, like you, and meet when/if I visit again. My details are in my HN profile, and/or you can simply google me to find ways to contact me, if you'd like to.
It felt like Icelanders made sitting in a hot tub a national sport, which was fine by me when I visited. My son and I walked over to Vesturbæjarlaug a few times and it was great.
I've been to Iceland and tried the pool, and it was one of my favorite experiences (well, pretty much the whole trip was a favorite experience, Iceland is amazing). It was very invigorating to stand up from the 35 C water into the 2 C air and back.
On the other hand, it seems that suicide rates correlate poorly with results in research on happiness.
For instance, compare the results of Happiness Research Institute to the suicide rates. Some of the countries with highest suicide rates are also the happiest!
Iceland gets next to no sun November-February, leading people to depression, drinking, etc. It would likely affect you much more than the winter you know from other countries.
If anything, the social aspect of going to a hot pool in the winter is likely to keep people from committing more suicides.
It's likely that countries that experience the most depression have also developed and iterated through a range of cultural cures. We can all learn something from them.
A very interesting article. It made me look up some facts, actually. In Finland, there are 218 public swimming halls. There are 313 administrative districts (communes, towns or cities) in the country. Thus, practically even the smallest of the communes with population of only a few thousand have a swimming hall; big cities have several. Lacking geothermal heat, the pools are indoors and explicitly heated obviously.
This isn't generally talked about much. I didn't realize it myself before reading this article: Finland probably isn't famous for its swimming and swimming hall culture, but it's everywhere. Except for people who don't specifically like water practically grow into a culture of swimming at halls. Nobody really thinks much about it. Everyone knows how to behave there. Old people gather at swimming halls for bathing, swimming and aquajogging. Physical education classes at school swim at the local hall, kids are brought to swimming halls in the first year, regular people go to swimming halls to exercise... There's nothing much special about it. We swim outdoors, in lakes and the sea, mostly for fun but swimming halls are the place for a more focused physical exercise. I would assume Sweden and Denmark are similar, roughly.
I've had subpar experiences trying to find an abundance of swimming options when travelling abroad. My culture might not be that common after all.
+1 for the information, but I don't think all the "Augh"s are warranted.
One of the widely accepted, dictionary definitions of "cement" is simply "concrete." (In fact, Merriam Webster has this listed as definition #1.) I understand that the terms have different technical meanings, but in common English they are simply synonyms.
I cycled around Iceland in may of last year. Slipping into a hotpool after a day of pedaling against the wind in barely above freezing temperature was simply amazing.
[+] [-] gardarh|10 years ago|reply
The title hints that this is the reason for the country's high score in happiness surveys such is this one: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/denmark-happi... . While I don't think it's that simple I can forgive the author, the title "A survey on Icelandic swimming pool culture" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Usually when I see these surveys the first question that pops up is "How do they measure that?" and it seems journalists generally are not to keen on pursuing that question.
My point is that isolating one thing from a culture and pinning that down as a "cause for happiness" seems a bit silly to me. But apart from that the article is pretty accurate.
[+] [-] saiya-jin|10 years ago|reply
But all pools are standard treated clean water although whole island has natural hot springs with bluish hot water coming straight form he ground all over it (it's basically like a big volcano all over). Very few places to enjoy those. I guess tourists want to have different experiences than those living there.
[+] [-] simonebrunozzi|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bedhead|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|10 years ago|reply
If you haven't tried it, you need to.
[+] [-] shin_lao|10 years ago|reply
If you use suicide rate as an indicator, Iceland doesn't seem to be so happy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...
[+] [-] ptaipale|10 years ago|reply
For instance, compare the results of Happiness Research Institute to the suicide rates. Some of the countries with highest suicide rates are also the happiest!
http://www.euronews.com/2015/07/02/finland-tops-european-cou...
[+] [-] viraptor|10 years ago|reply
If anything, the social aspect of going to a hot pool in the winter is likely to keep people from committing more suicides.
[+] [-] luxpir|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tikumo|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] yason|10 years ago|reply
This isn't generally talked about much. I didn't realize it myself before reading this article: Finland probably isn't famous for its swimming and swimming hall culture, but it's everywhere. Except for people who don't specifically like water practically grow into a culture of swimming at halls. Nobody really thinks much about it. Everyone knows how to behave there. Old people gather at swimming halls for bathing, swimming and aquajogging. Physical education classes at school swim at the local hall, kids are brought to swimming halls in the first year, regular people go to swimming halls to exercise... There's nothing much special about it. We swim outdoors, in lakes and the sea, mostly for fun but swimming halls are the place for a more focused physical exercise. I would assume Sweden and Denmark are similar, roughly.
I've had subpar experiences trying to find an abundance of swimming options when travelling abroad. My culture might not be that common after all.
[+] [-] turaw|10 years ago|reply
"There are ramshackle _cement_ rectangles squatting under rain clouds..."
It's concrete [1] not cement. Even the word cementing can mean "settle or establish firmly", which is what happens to the aggregate in concrete. Augh.
[1]: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/12/the-differen...
[+] [-] pdabbadabba|10 years ago|reply
One of the widely accepted, dictionary definitions of "cement" is simply "concrete." (In fact, Merriam Webster has this listed as definition #1.) I understand that the terms have different technical meanings, but in common English they are simply synonyms.
E.g., http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cement
There may be an opportunity for a Battle of the Dictionaries here, but I think this skirmish in the language wars may be over.
[+] [-] known|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Huhuh|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orbitingpluto|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wtbob|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] im_asl|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michael_h|10 years ago|reply