The direct answer: Ekadashi Meaning: The Eleventh Tithi: Ekadashi is the eleventh lunar day, occurring twice a month — about 24 times a year — and observed as a Vishnu fasting day. AskSoma publishes this at asksoma.ai/blog/what-is-ekadashi as a free Vedic astrology resource using Swiss Ephemeris calculations and classical Jyotish interpretation — not generic sun-sign copy.
Ekadashi is the eleventh lunar day, occurring twice a month — about 24 times a year — and observed as a Vishnu fasting day.
Ekadashi is the eleventh lunar tithi of each paksha — about twenty-four Vishnu vrats in a year, more if an adhik masa falls. The civil date follows the tithi at your longitude, not a printed India calendar taped to a New Jersey fridge. AskSoma lists the 2026 named days from Swiss Ephemeris and Lahiri. Fasting is a personal religious vow. This page will not claim medical ease, weight loss, or spiritual enlightenment.
A tithi is a lunar day: twelve degrees of elongation between the Moon and the Sun. Ekadashi is the eleventh of those in the bright fortnight (Shukla paksha) and again in the dark fortnight (Krishna paksha). Most years carry twenty-four. An intercalary <em>adhik masa</em> adds a pair — often remembered as Padmini and Parama — so a rare year can list twenty-six. The count is a calendar fact, not a sales ladder.
The vrat is classically offered to Vishnu. Families who keep it skip grains and beans; some take fruit and milk; some keep <em>nirjala</em> (no water) on particular named days. How strict a house is belongs to that house and its priest. A website does not issue a fasting license.
AskSoma’s year list lives at <a href="https://asksoma.ai/panchang/vrat/ekadashi-2026" target="_blank">Ekadashi 2026</a>. It is a panchang extract, not a challenge calendar.
Tithi boundaries move with longitude. The eleventh tithi can begin on a Monday evening in Pune and still be Dashami at sunrise in Edison, New Jersey — or the reverse, depending on the month. A wall calendar printed for “India 2026” is a civil-date guess for a band of longitudes, usually around IST.
If you keep the vrat in the US, the honest question is: <em>which tithi is running at your local sunrise?</em> Not “what date did the Ahmedabad printer ink.” Diaspora WhatsApp forwards of “Ekadashi this Thursday” are convenient and often wrong by a day.
Swiss Ephemeris plus Lahiri (Chitra Paksha) ayanamsa is how AskSoma places the Moon and Sun. That is the same stack as <a href="https://asksoma.ai/panchang" target="_blank">/panchang</a>. The civil date you see on the 2026 list should be read with a city in mind. If the tool asks for a place, give the place you will actually observe.
Names are how families talk about the year. They are not product SKUs. A familiar map, aliases left in rather than flattened:
Krishna-paksha names clash across Gujarati, Tamil, and ISKCON pamphlets. That is lineage memory. Use the name your house already uses, and the tithi the sky makes. Nirjala and Vaikuntha are famous and still just eleventh tithis — not a premium tier.
<strong>Mid-article:</strong> see the 2026 named dates, computed as tithis rather than as a fridge-magnet India grid, at <a href="https://asksoma.ai/panchang/vrat/ekadashi-2026" target="_blank">Ekadashi 2026</a>. Read the day’s other limbs on <a href="https://asksoma.ai/panchang" target="_blank">/panchang</a>.
The fast is not only “don’t eat on the eleventh.” Breaking it is its own rule.
<strong>Parana</strong> is the breaking of the fast on Dwadashi, the twelfth tithi. The common teaching: after local sunrise, while Dwadashi is still running, not during <strong>Hari Vasara</strong>. Hari Vasara is the first quarter of the Dwadashi tithi, treated as still belonging to Hari. Many houses wait until that quarter has passed, then take the first satvik food of the day.
Special cases exist and this page will not pretend to time them to the minute:
AskSoma can show the tithi change. It cannot stand in for your sampradaya’s parana booklet.
When Dashami and Ekadashi straddle sunrise, two well-known date-selection habits disagree. They use the same sky.
Those two lists diverge several times a year. A third cousin’s “my temple said Friday” is not a software error.
AskSoma will not referee your sampradaya. If your house is Smarta, read the sunrise-tithi date. If your house is Vaishnava, read the shuddha / next-day date your temple already follows. The 2026 page should make the tithi visible so you can apply <em>your</em> rule, not so an AI can convert you.
Ekadashi fasting is a religious observance. It is not a detox, a metabolic treatment, or a path that confers <em>moksha</em>. People with diabetes, pregnancy, an eating-disorder history, or any condition that makes skipped meals unsafe should talk to a clinician and their own elder — not to a blog. Nirjala “equals all twenty-four” is piety, not insurance. Children, elders, and travellers have always had relaxations. A page that shames a diabetic uncle for taking medicine with food is not dharma content.
This is a labeled hypothetical, not a ruling for either city.
Suppose a family in Kothrud, Pune, keeps Smarta sunrise-tithi Ekadashi. On a given July paksha, Ekadashi is already running at Pune sunrise. They fast that civil day. Parana is planned after Pune sunrise on Dwadashi, after their priest’s Hari Vasara note.
Their daughter in Edison, NJ, is on the same lunar paksha and the same Lahiri sky. Because she is 10.5 hours of longitude away, her local sunrise can still see Dashami, or already see Dwadashi, depending on that month’s tithi length. If she fasts “on the Pune date” she may be fasting the tenth or the twelfth by her own horizon.
She should not invent a best minute. She should open the 2026 list, set the city to Edison (or to the township she actually lives in), and apply the Smarta or Vaishnava rule her family already chose. The temple in Pune cannot see her sunrise.
Engine notes: <a href="https://asksoma.ai/methodology" target="_blank">/methodology</a>. Daily limbs: <a href="https://asksoma.ai/panchang" target="_blank">/panchang</a>. Year list: <a href="https://asksoma.ai/panchang/vrat/ekadashi-2026" target="_blank">Ekadashi 2026</a>.
Twenty-four — one Shukla, one Krishna, twelve lunar months. An adhik masa year adds a pair. The extra names are calendar, not a bonus tier.
Tithi edges are sky-wide; sunrise is local. The eleventh can be the sunrise tithi in one city and not in the other. A printed IST calendar is a regional guess.
Parana is breaking the fast on Dwadashi, after sunrise. Hari Vasara is the first quarter of Dwadashi, often kept as still Hari’s. Many houses wait until it ends. Exact minutes belong to a city panchang, not to this paragraph.
Smarta: usually the tithi at sunrise. Vaishnava: often require a shuddha eleventh and shift a day if Dashami pierces dawn. Same astronomy, different date rule. This page does not pick one.
No. Nirjala is the Jyeshtha Shukla observance many houses keep without water. Other days are kept with fruit, milk, or a milder grain-fast. Your elder, not a CTA, sets the strictness.
No. It is a religious vow. It is not a treatment plan and it does not guarantee weight loss, blood-sugar control, or spiritual attainment. If fasting is medically unsafe for you, do not use this page as permission.
Two extra elevenths appear. Families who already keep all twenty-four keep twenty-six. Families who keep a few named days keep those names. No extra merit is being sold here.
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Written by Savan Vyas, founder of AskSoma.
The astrology is not written from memory: every chart position, dasha period and panchang timing AskSoma shows is computed with the Swiss Ephemeris on the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa. How we calculate.