The Origin of Fitness Spa Vacations
Technology has advanced in so many ways in the recent years that it has significantly contributed to the now very fast-paced lifestyle that everybody is struggling to cope up with. It is has been a challenge to catch up on the changes that technology brings sometimes, which causes many of us to feel worn out. Because of that, fitness spa vacations are now turning out to be the most sought for travel packages among travelers. The services and facilities offered alone by the many fitness spa resorts around the world are indeed very inviting.
Many people are now looking for various fitness travel that they can escape to. The main objective is to separate themselves from the busy urban environment that they have to deal with everyday to de-stress and detoxify. fitness spa resorts are among the greatest things we can ask for in our time. It is interesting to find out where these fitness spa resorts that give us amazing fitness travel experiences came from.
The practice of going to hot springs or cold springs for medical reasons can be traced back to prehistoric times. This is a validated fact. Archaeologists found certain weapons and offerings from the Bronze Age in the vicinity of the hot springs in both France and Czechoslovakia. Ancient legends, however, claim that it was the early Celtic Kings that started this belief when they discovered the hot springs located at Bath, England.
People of different cultures believed in the natural powers of water since the earlier times. There are those who find means to travel to different parts of the world to bathe in springs, wells or rivers known to help sick people. There are even rituals performed by the native Americans, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans and many more for physical and spiritual purification. The respect that ancient people have in water and its miraculous wonders was so high that even building construction near bodies of water were either prohibited or limited. In any case that a construction is done, it was never permanent. The high regard for water is even carried out to this day as evident in the many religious ceremonies performed with water.
There are very many speculations on the origin of the word “spa”. There are those who believe that it started as an acronym for ancient phrases in the Latin language. Some, however, believe that it came from a Walloon word, the second language spoken in Wallonia, Belgium. Others say that the word “spa” came from a Belgian town of the same name, which was later developed to become a term that refers to the definition that we have come to know.
In a commercial context, many health spas claim that the word originated in the old Latin language. They say that spa is an acronym for the phrases “Salus Per Aquam” or “Sanitas Per Aquam”. When both phrases are translated to the English language, they say “health through water”. There is, however, no existing validation that this theory is true. There has been no evidence found both by the founders and linguists that the acronym was passed on throughout the centuries to connote the spas that we know right now.
Throughout the years, there have been so many ailments caused by the deficiency in iron. Today, there are iron tablets or capsules that we can take as supplement. During the Middle Ages, people lacking in iron were given a drink of spring water rich in iron. In 1326, an ironmaster by the name of Collin le Loup claimed a cure for the maladies caused by iron deficiency when the chalybeate spring where the water was coming from was named Espa, which is a Walloon word for “fountain”.
Centuries later, the English people revived the old Roman idea on medicinal bathing in some towns such as Bath. In the 1570’s, William Slingsby who once visited the town of Spa in Belgium, found a chalybeate spring that he called Spaw. He later built a wall around the spring to enclose it, making it the first resort in England for drinking medical waters. In the 1590’s, Dr. Timothy Bright called that resort The English Spaw, which was the dawn of the use of the word “spa” as a generic description to such establishments rather than the name of the Belgian town. In the following years, spa is used to refer to bathing resorts that the ancient rich frequented for cleansing.
No matter where the name came from, we are thankful for the idea that brought us the fitness spa resorts that we know today. Evolution really is inevitable, and because of that we now have fitness vacations that we can escape to in order to relax and rejuvenate.
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