Vaishnava Calendar
The Vaishnava calendar is the lunar calendar by which followers of Vishnu and Krishna keep their fasts and celebrate their festivals. It is built on the tithi, the lunar day: the time the Moon takes to move twelve degrees away from the Sun. That is why its dates change every year, and why the day of a festival is set not by the clock but by the tithi that is running at sunrise in your city.
Ekadashi and the rule of viddha
Ekadashi is the eleventh tithi of the waxing and of the waning Moon: twice a month, 24 times in an ordinary year and 26 in a year with an extra month. On this day Vaishnavas fast, giving up grains and beans, and many also water.
The fast is kept on the day whose sunrise falls in ekadashi. The Vaishnava tradition is stricter than the general one, though: it looks not at sunrise itself but at arunodaya, the 96 minutes before it. If the tenth tithi, dashami, is still running at arunodaya, ekadashi is called "pierced" (viddha) and the fast moves to the next day. This is why the Vaishnava ekadashi often falls a day later than in ordinary Indian almanacs.
Sometimes a tithi is shorter than a day and touches no sunrise at all, and sometimes it is longer and touches two. The calendar has its own rules for both cases, and the calculation below applies them automatically.
Parana: breaking the fast
The fast is broken on the next day, dvadashi, and not at just any time. The parana window opens at sunrise, but not before the end of hari-vasara, the first quarter of dvadashi, and closes at the end of the first third of daylight. If dvadashi ends earlier, the fast is broken between sunrise and its end: breaking the fast within dvadashi matters most. So the window may last three hours or a quarter of an hour, and it is worth checking in advance.
Main festivals
- Gaura Purnima: the full moon of Phalguna, the appearance of Sri Chaitanya;
- Rama Navami: the ninth day of the waxing Moon in Chaitra;
- Nrisimha Chaturdashi: the fourteenth day of the waxing Moon in Vaishakha;
- Ratha Yatra: the second day of the waxing Moon in Ashadha;
- Krishna Janmashtami: the eighth day of the waning Moon, in late summer;
- Radhashtami: the eighth day of the waxing Moon in Bhadrapada;
- Govardhana Puja: the first day of the waxing Moon in Kartika, the morning after Diwali;
- Kartika Purnima: the full moon of Kartika, closing the holy month.
Months are counted here from new moon to new moon. In parts of India the month runs from full moon to full moon, and then Janmashtami falls in Bhadrapada rather than Shravana; the day itself does not change.
Ekadashi and festivals for the next 12 months
| Date | Event | Parana (breaking the fast) |
|---|---|---|
| November 20, 2026, Fri | Prabodhini (Utthana) Ekadashi next | Sat 21.11, 07:34–10:21 |
| November 24, 2026, Tue | Kartika Purnima | |
| December 4, 2026, Fri | Utpanna Ekadashi | Sat 05.12, 07:56–10:32 |
| December 20, 2026, Sun | Mokshada Ekadashi | Mon 21.12, 08:13–08:21 |
| January 3, 2027, Sun | Saphala Ekadashi | Mon 04.01, 08:17–10:49 |
| January 18, 2027, Mon | Putrada Ekadashi | Tue 19.01, 08:08–10:50 |
| February 1, 2027, Mon | Shattila Ekadashi | Tue 02.02, 13:42–14:42 |
| February 17, 2027, Wed | Jaya Ekadashi | Thu 18.02, 07:20–10:37 |
| March 3, 2027, Wed | Vijaya Ekadashi | Thu 04.03, 08:53–10:25 |
| March 18, 2027, Thu | Amalaki Ekadashi | Fri 19.03, 06:16–10:11 |
| March 22, 2027, Mon | Gaura Purnima, appearance of Sri Chaitanya | |
| April 2, 2027, Fri | Papamochani Ekadashi | Sat 03.04, 06:41–10:56 |
| April 15, 2027, Thu | Rama Navami | |
| April 17, 2027, Sat | Kamada Ekadashi moved a day: dashami still ran at arunodaya | Sun 18.04, 06:07–10:42 |
| May 2, 2027, Sun | Varuthini Ekadashi | Mon 03.05, 05:36–10:30 |
| May 16, 2027, Sun | Mohini Ekadashi | Mon 17.05, 05:12–10:21 |
| May 19, 2027, Wed | Nrisimha Chaturdashi | |
| May 31, 2027, Mon | Apara Ekadashi | Tue 01.06, 07:20–10:16 |
| June 14, 2027, Mon | Nirjala Ekadashi | Tue 15.06, 05:03–10:15 |
| June 30, 2027, Wed | Yogini Ekadashi | Thu 01.07, 04:49–10:18 |
| July 5, 2027, Mon | Ratha Yatra | |
| July 14, 2027, Wed | Devshayani Ekadashi | Thu 15.07, 05:01–10:24 |
| July 29, 2027, Thu | Kamika Ekadashi | Fri 30.07, 05:20–10:31 |
| August 12, 2027, Thu | Pavitropana (Putrada) Ekadashi | Fri 13.08, 06:00–10:37 |
| August 25, 2027, Wed | Krishna Janmashtami | |
| August 28, 2027, Sat | Aja Ekadashi moved a day: dashami still ran at arunodaya | Sun 29.08, 06:08–10:43 |
| September 8, 2027, Wed | Radhashtami | |
| September 11, 2027, Sat | Parsva Ekadashi | Sun 12.09, 06:30–10:48 |
| September 26, 2027, Sun | Indira Ekadashi | Mon 27.09, 06:55–09:40 |
| October 11, 2027, Mon | Papankusha Ekadashi moved a day: dashami still ran at arunodaya | Tue 12.10, 07:20–10:11 |
| October 25, 2027, Mon | Rama Ekadashi | Tue 26.10, 07:45–11:04 |
| October 30, 2027, Sat | Govardhana Puja | |
| November 9, 2027, Tue | Prabodhini (Utthana) Ekadashi | Wed 10.11, 07:27–10:13 |
| November 13, 2027, Sat | Kartika Purnima |
Calculated for London (51.51° N, 0.13° W), times in UK time (GMT, BST in summer). Surya Siddhanta engine. In another city the tithi boundary falls at a different hour relative to local sunrise, so the fasting date may shift by a day.
Ekadashi reminders and parana times for your own city — in the Telegram bot @astrojyotish_info_bot
Why dates differ
Compare a few calendars and you will often find a difference of one day. There are three reasons.
- The city. A tithi begins at the same moment all over the Earth, but every city has its own sunrise. If ekadashi begins before dawn, in London arunodaya may already fall in ekadashi while in Moscow, where the Sun rises earlier, it still falls in dashami, and the Moscow fast is a day later.
- The rule. Vaishnavas look at arunodaya, smartas at sunrise, and communities have their own rules for festivals, so the dates of ISKCON, the Gaudiya Math and general Indian almanacs sometimes differ.
- The system. This calendar is calculated by the Surya Siddhanta engine that also draws the charts on this site (see the Surya Siddhanta school). Its Sun and Moon differ slightly from modern ephemerides, the tithi boundary moves by tens of minutes, and if it lies right at sunrise the fasting day may shift.
The table above is therefore for one city. For your own city, ask the Telegram bot: it calculates ekadashi and the parana time for your coordinates. A personal lunar calendar for your birth chart, with the tithi, nakshatra and house of the Moon for each day, is in the Lunar Calendar.