„Tere, armas õekene!“ Tervis kirjade teemana

This article examines private letters as sources for understanding vernacular conceptions of health and illness from a folkloristic perspective. Drawing on 268 Estonian family letters written between 1912–1935, 1955–1960, and 1964–1979, the study focuses on how health is written about rather than on identifying diseases or treatments. The analysis situates letter writing within broader cultural practices, considering formulaic expressions, everyday writing habits, and the environments that letters mediate. The present study grew out of an observation that one of the most common opening and closing formulas in Estonian letters expresses a wish for health: tere („hello“) and tervitades („with greetings“). Both derive from the root ‘terve’ („healthy“), which, according to the Estonian Etymological Dictionary, denotes „a state in which the whole organism functions normally, is in good order, not ill or damaged; natural, normal, intact.“ References to health in the letters fall roughly into four categories: (1) statements of being well; (2) everyday ailments caused by cold, overwork, or infection; (3) more serious illnesses requiring medical intervention; and (4) age-related ailments regarded as natural. Descriptions of illness in a dying person’s final days may be read as part of the process of mourning. Although the names of diseases and remedies appear only rarely, the letters often dwell on the means of recovery. In village contexts, knowledge of traditional healing – warm and cold compresses, plasters, steam inhalation, and similar practices – figures prominently. In the earlier period (1912–1935), the scarcity of medical care and the importance of faith in God are evident; in the later period (1964–1979), home-based treatments intertwine with professional medical services, medical literature, and the help of healers and folk practitioners. In the urban setting (1955–1960), by contrast, the authority and accessibility of state medicine predominate. The study demonstrates that writing about health in everyday correspondence reflects not only bodily experience but also the social and moral frameworks of care within different temporal and spatial contexts.