Rein Sikk, who first came up with the idea of celebrating the Year of the Sauna, was sworn in as sauna minister on the high street of Jõhvi on Saturday where a sauna day was organized by the Jõhvi Central Library. This despite the Estonian proverb according to which "everyone is equal in the sauna."

"I see it as a positive thing, because as we've found in the Kadrina Sauna, everyone is equal here. We have had 17 real ministers and four prime ministers, and looking at the merrymaking in the sauna, it's usually hard to say who is a minister and who isn't," Sikk said.

"Because we have Rein Sikk. I don't know whether we would need a sauna minister if we didn't have Rein, because what the men of the Kadrina Sauna Club have achieved is magnificent. You would still hit the sauna with them if you were in Africa and it was 60°C degrees outside," said Tiia Linnard, organizer of the Jõhvi Sauna Day, when asked why they decided to appoint a sauna minister.

Rein Sikk is an Estonian journalist and sauna culture promoter.

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