Tycho Brahe And "His" Lists of BAD DAYS

 

 

 

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)

 

This month, January 2026, I've had the annoying experience of strings of what Scandinavians call "Tycho Brahe-Days". Not that my special days followed his old list of what he claimed to be "Bad days", but bad they were, so being a Scandinavian, I named them "Tycho Brahe Days" when I complained about them to those who put up with my whinings of bad luck, loads of mishaps of all shapes, etc.. Normally most of us don't experience strings of bad days, followed by more of the same kind of days for a lengthy time period, but that was what I did, and it gave rise to annoyance and a certain measure of superstition. I may laugh at some kinds of weird, superstitious beliefs by others, but experiencing whole strings of "bad days" makes one alert to the possibility of "luck" - good or bad - being a fact of life. If that's the case, then "being out of luck" feels like a genuine curse: The superstition turns into a real and quite substantial danger to one. 

Now, WHO was Tycho Brahe since he, many years after his death, is blamed for what happens to me in the year of 2026? Well, he was a Danish nobleman as well as a famous Danish astrologer, astronomer and alchemist. Some have called him the last as well as the greatest major astronomer before the invention of the telescope and, by the way, he himself did a lot to develop the astronomical instruments. However, his main achievement was his 1572-sighting of a new and very bright star which was to be seen where it was not expected to be. The King, Frederik II, granted him an estate where he could build what became the very first large observatories in Christian Europe. His research gave astronomy a boost, and it may be considered the first modern science which was part of the Scientific Revolution. All in all, Tycho Brahe must have had a very successful life, although he lost much of his nose in a duel with a relative in total darkness. After that he wore a prosthetic nose which is supposed to have been made of silver. However, at one point he fell out with the new Danish king, Christian IV, and had to flee to Prague. Here he built an observatory when he became the official imperial astronomer. Several hundred years later his grave was opened for an examination of his skeleton as rumor had it that he had been poisoned, but that doesn't seem to be the case. 

 

 

 

We all know the idea that the combination of Friday and the number of 13 is very bad, as it spells grave problems, but with him there are many more "bad days". 

"Tycho Brahe Days":

• January 1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 12, 29
• February 11, 17, 18
• March 1, 4, 14, 15
• April 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 29
• May 10, 17, 18
• June 6
• July 17, 21
• August 20, 21
• September 16, 18
• October 6
• November 6, 18
• December 6, 11, 18

Some claim that Tycho Brahe also identified several days as particularly lucky:

• January 26
• February 9 and 10
• June 15