🧖‍♂️Visiting the banya is an integral part of Russians’ New Year holidays

🧖‍♂️Visiting the banya is an integral part of Russians’ New Year holidays. The experience consists of sitting in a closed room with the temperature around 60-90 degrees Celsius, receiving a beating on the back with birch branches and then submerging into icy water, and then starting from the very beginning. It may shock some, but Russians really enjoy the extreme pastime, some even believe that the banya helps them to become cleansed physically and spiritually.