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Ekadashi, Amavasya & Purnima: The 2026 Vrat Dates Ahead
If you mark your year by the moon rather than the calendar, the next ten weeks are unusually busy. India has just stepped out of a rare leap lunar month, and the run of Ekadashi, Amavasya and Purnima dates from late June through August packs in some of the most significant observances of 2026 — including the fast many consider the hardest of all, and the day weddings stop for four months.
Here is a clear, practical map of what is coming, when each tithi actually falls, and why people keep these days at all.
The next Ekadashi dates to put on your calendar
Ekadashi is the eleventh lunar day, observed twice a lunar month — once in the waxing fortnight and once in the waning one. Devotees of Vishnu typically fast, skip grains and rice, and break the fast the next morning at a window called parana. From mid-June 2026 onward, these are the ones that matter:
- Nirjala Ekadashi — 25 June 2026. The big one. "Nirjala" means without water, and this fast is kept with no food and no liquid for a full day and night. Tradition holds that keeping this single day earns the spiritual reward of all the year's Ekadashis put together, which is why even those who skip the rest observe this one.
- Yogini Ekadashi — 10 July 2026. A waning-moon fast associated with release from guilt and the lifting of afflictions. Quieter than Nirjala, but widely kept.
- Devshayani Ekadashi — 25 July 2026. Also called Ashadhi or Padma Ekadashi, this is the day Vishnu is said to enter his cosmic sleep, beginning the four-month Chaturmas. More on why that changes the social calendar below.
If you fast, remember that the parana (breaking-fast) time is specific and falls within a couple of hours after sunrise on the following day. Eating too early or too late is considered to undo part of the observance.
Amavasya: the new-moon days for ancestors and stillness
Amavasya is the no-moon night, traditionally set aside for honouring ancestors through tarpan and pind daan, for charity, and for quiet rather than celebration. Many families avoid starting new ventures on Amavasya, treating it instead as a day to settle, reflect and remember.
The upcoming new moons are:
- Ashadha Amavasya — 14 July 2026. A day commonly used for ancestral rites and for donations to the needy.
- Shravana Amavasya — 12 August 2026. In large parts of north India this is Hariyali Amavasya, a green, monsoon-season day when people plant saplings and worship Shiva, falling just before the festive rush of Shravan.
Note that an Amavasya that lands on a Monday becomes Somvati Amavasya, considered especially auspicious for married women and for ancestral offerings. It is worth checking your local panchang for that, because the weekday a tithi falls on shifts its significance.
Purnima: full moons that anchor the festivals
If Amavasya is for stillness, Purnima — the full moon — is for fasting, gratitude and gathering. Several of the year's most recognisable festivals are simply Purnima days under another name.
- Jyeshtha Purnima — 29 June 2026. Linked with Vat Purnima in western India, when married women fast and tie threads around a banyan tree praying for their husbands' long life.
- Ashadha Purnima (Guru Purnima) — 29 July 2026. One of the most important full moons of the year, set aside to honour teachers and spiritual guides. It also marks the start of the traditional rainy-season retreat for monks across Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
- Shravana Purnima — 28 August 2026. This is Raksha Bandhan, the day siblings tie the rakhi, and in coastal regions it is also Narali Purnima, when fishing communities offer coconuts to the sea before the new season.
For most Purnima vrats, the fast is kept through the day and broken after sighting the moon — which, in a monsoon month, is not always guaranteed.
Why weddings pause after 25 July
The single date with the widest social impact is Devshayani Ekadashi on 25 July 2026. From this day, Vishnu is believed to sleep for four months, and that period — Chaturmas — is traditionally kept free of weddings, housewarmings, sacred-thread ceremonies and other big auspicious events.
It is not a religious technicality. Across much of India, banquet halls, priests and caterers see a deliberate lull until the season reopens with Prabodhini (Dev Uthani) Ekadashi in November, when Vishnu is said to wake. If a wedding in your family is being slotted for late July onward, this is the reason the muhurat list suddenly thins out. The four months are instead seen as a time for fasting, simplicity, pilgrimage and self-discipline.
The leap month that added two bonus fasts
There is a quiet astronomical story behind why mid-2026 felt so crowded with auspicious days. The year carried an Adhik Maas — a leap lunar month inserted to keep the lunar and solar calendars in step. In 2026 it was Adhik Jyeshtha, and a leap month brings its own pair of Ekadashis, Padmini and Parama, which only surface once every two to three years.
That is also why you may have seen two Jyeshtha Amavasyas or felt the festival calendar drift later than usual. Adhik Maas itself is considered highly sacred — devotees use it for extra fasting, charity and reading of scripture — but it has now ended, and the calendar from late June settles back into its regular Jyeshtha–Ashadha–Shravana rhythm.
How to read these dates without getting tripped up
The most common confusion with Ekadashi, Amavasya and Purnima dates is that two reliable calendars can list different days for the same event. That is not an error. These are tithis — slices of the moon's cycle — and a tithi rarely lines up neatly with a single 24-hour day.
A few things worth keeping in mind:
- A tithi can begin on one date and end on the next, so observance is decided by which day the relevant sunrise falls in.
- Fasting rules differ by tradition. Smarta and Vaishnava communities sometimes keep Ekadashi on different days, and widows or specific lineages may follow their own conventions.
- Timings are location-specific. A panchang set for Delhi will not exactly match one for Chennai or for the Gulf, because sunrise differs.
- For fasts with a strict parana, the breaking window matters as much as the fast itself.
The simplest rule: pick one trusted local panchang or temple calendar for your city and stick with it through the year, rather than mixing sources. The dates above follow the most widely used reckoning for India, but a quick check against your own city's sunrise will keep you on the right side of every tithi from Nirjala in June to Raksha Bandhan in August.
