Vaikuntha Ekadasi · Mukkoti Ekadasi Festival The Shukla Ekadasi that falls while the Sun stands in Dhanus, the greatest Ekadasi of the Vaishnava year.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Vaikuntha Ekadasi · Mukkoti Ekadasi
- తెలుగు
- వైకుంఠ ఏకాదశి
- ಕನ್ನಡ
- ವೈಕುಂಠ ಏಕಾದಶಿ
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The Shukla Ekadasi that falls while the Sun stands in Dhanus, the greatest Ekadasi of the Vaishnava year. The north gate of the Vishnu temples, the Vaikuntha Dwaram, is opened before dawn and the devotee passes through it behind the deity; the day is called Mukkoti because the thirty million gods are held to come to the darshan.
- Deity
- Vishnu, Venkateswara, Ranganatha
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
The Ekadasi running at sunrise while the Sun is in Dhanus, roughly 16 December to 13 January, read in the Vaishnava way: the second of two sunrises, and the Dwadasi day when the tithi holds no sunrise. The gate opens in the last watch of the night; the fast runs to the parana on the Dwadasi.
The fast
A full Ekadasi fast without rice or grain, kept by many without sleep through the night and broken after sunrise on the Dwadasi.
Where the regions differ
Tirumala, Srirangam and Simhachalam keep it alike. A civil year can hold two of these or none, because the Dhanur masa straddles the turn of the year.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.