päevikud

Päevikud are personal journals or diaries kept to record daily experiences, thoughts, and observations. The Estonian term päevik means a diary, and the plural päevikud refers to diaries or journals. A typical diary is written regularly, often with dates, and may document everyday events, emotional states, goals, or reflections on people and places. Diaries can serve private purposes—memory preservation, self-analysis, planning—or public purposes when excerpts are published as memoirs.

Forms and media: Traditional handwritten volumes remain common, but modern diaries also take digital forms, such as blogging, word-processing files, or diary apps. Different genres include travel diaries, dream journals, food diaries, or field notebooks in scientific work.

Purpose and significance: Diaries provide insight into a writer's inner life and a contemporaneous record of daily life. They are valuable historical and literary sources, offering perspectives not captured by official records. Researchers examine diaries for personal development, social history, urban life, or cultural change; for writers, journaling can support creative work.

Notable examples: Worldwide, famous diaries include Samuel Pepys's 17th-century London diary and Anne Frank's diary of a girl in wartime occupied Netherlands; many writers have kept private journals that later informed their published work.

See also: journals, memoirs, logbooks.