Ekadashi date in the USA and UK: why it can fall a day before India
Ekadashi and Karwa Chauth can fall a day earlier in the USA, UK or Canada than in India. The Moon is the same everywhere; the sunrise you count from is not.
Every year somebody in New Jersey or Leicester rings family in India to check the Ekadashi date, is told one day, and finds the local temple keeping the day before. Both are right. The Ekadashi date in the USA, the UK or Canada can be a day earlier than the one printed in an Indian calendar, and the reason is not a disagreement about the Moon. It is a question of whose sunrise you count from.
The tithi is the same everywhere. The day is not.
A tithi is a lunar day, measured by how far the Moon has moved ahead of the Sun. When the Moon crosses the boundary into Ekadashi, it crosses it once, for the whole planet. If Ekadashi begins at a certain instant in Delhi, it begins at that same instant in New York, London and Sydney. Only the clock on the wall reads differently.
What changes is the day the tithi is assigned to. A vrat is not kept "while Ekadashi lasts"; it is kept on a particular calendar day, and that day is chosen by looking at what is happening at your own sunrise, or for some observances your own moonrise. Sunrise is a local event. It reaches New York many hours after it reaches Delhi, and it reaches Sydney before either.
So one tithi, beginning at one instant, can sit across 4 November in one city and 5 November in another.
The rule for Ekadashi
The rule this site computes is the Smarta one, and it is short:
- Ekadashi is kept on the day Ekadashi prevails at local sunrise.
- If Ekadashi touches no sunrise at all (a kshaya tithi), it is kept on the day it covers most.
- Vaishnava and ISKCON calendars keep it a day later when Dashami is still running at arunodaya, the dawn period 96 minutes before sunrise.
That last point explains another common confusion: a family following ISKCON and a family following a Smarta calendar can disagree in the same city, in the same year, and both be following their tradition correctly.
Rama Ekadashi 2026: a worked example
Here is what the calculation gives for Rama Ekadashi this year:
| City | Ekadashi kept |
|---|---|
| Delhi | 5 November |
| New York | 4 November |
| Los Angeles | 4 November |
| London | 4 November |
| Sydney | 5 November |
Look at why. Applied to Delhi's sunrises, the rule selects 5 November. New York's sunrise on 4 November comes many hours later in absolute time than Delhi's sunrise that day, late enough that the same Ekadashi is already under way when it arrives. By the same rule, New York keeps the 4th. London and Los Angeles land the same way. Sydney, whose sunrise comes first, sees what Delhi sees.
Drik Panchang, calculating independently, also gives 4 November for nearby Washington DC and Leicester. When two separate engines agree, that is a good sign the difference is real rather than an error in either.
It does not always split. Prabodhini, or Dev Uthani, Ekadashi falls on 20 November in Delhi, New York, Los Angeles and London alike; this time it is Sydney that keeps the 21st. The shift depends on where in the day the tithi happens to begin, so it comes and goes from one Ekadashi to the next. That is why a single list cannot serve everyone.
Karwa Chauth runs on moonrise
Karwa Chauth is a different observance with a different rule, and it shows the same effect even more plainly.
It is Kartika's Sankashti Chaturthi: kept on the day Krishna Chaturthi is running at moonrise, with the fast broken after moonrise. In 2026:
| City | Karwa Chauth | Moonrise |
|---|---|---|
| Delhi | 29 October | 8:11 PM |
| New York | 28 October | 7:29 PM |
| Los Angeles | 28 October | 7:58 PM |
| London | 29 October | 6:22 PM |
| Sydney | 29 October | 11:09 PM |
A woman in New York who followed the Indian date would be fasting a day after the one the tradition's moonrise rule selects for her own sky, and waiting for a moonrise that rule does not point to. London shows the opposite case: there Chaturthi begins after the Moon has risen on the 28th and ends before it rises on the 29th, so it is current at neither moonrise, and the fast is kept on the 29th, the day Chaturthi holds at sunrise, as the published UK calendars list it.
The same moonrise logic applies to every Sankashti, including Sakat Chauth in Magha. The Purnima vrat follows a related rule: it is kept when Purnima is running at moonrise, while the Purnima day, for bath and daan, is the one with Purnima at sunrise. That is why the vrat can fall the evening before. In Delhi this year, Guru Purnima was 29 July, while the Purnima vrat was 28 July.
Not everything moves
Diwali is a useful counterexample. Lakshmi Puja is kept when Amavasya is running in pradosh, the 144 minutes after sunset, and in 2026 that lands on 8 November in Delhi, New York, Los Angeles, London and Sydney alike.
The date agrees. The time does not. The muhurat, taken in the Vrishabha lagna inside pradosh, is 5:55 to 7:51 PM in Delhi, 5:03 to 6:51 PM in New York, 4:35 to 6:12 PM in London and 8:06 to 9:53 PM in Sydney. Even when the day matches, an Indian muhurat time is no use abroad.
Parana changes too
Breaking the Ekadashi fast, parana, has its own rule, and it moves with your city just as the fast does.
Parana is on the next day, after Hari Vasara (the first quarter of Dwadashi) and while Dwadashi is still running. It is normally done in pratahkal, the first fifth of the day. If Hari Vasara runs past pratahkal, parana moves to aparahna, the fourth fifth of the day. If Dwadashi has already ended before sunrise, parana is taken in that morning's pratahkal.
For Rama Ekadashi 2026 that gives two quite different mornings. In New York, parana on 5 November is from 6:31 AM: an ordinary early breakfast. In London, Hari Vasara runs past pratahkal, so parana moves to aparahna and is from 12:40 PM. Somebody in London who broke the fast at dawn out of habit would be breaking it inside Hari Vasara, which the tradition asks you to avoid.
What to do if you live abroad
The practical advice is simple:
- Follow your own city, not the Indian calendar. The tradition's rule is about local sunrise and local moonrise. Applying it faithfully means applying it where you are.
- Check parana separately. The fast day and the parana time are two calculations, and the second can move by hours.
- Know which tradition you follow. If your family keeps ISKCON dates, expect some Ekadashis a day after the Smarta date, in India and abroad alike.
- Do not rely on a list from a relative's town. It was right for their sunrise.
The calculation adds nothing to the tradition. It only tells you which day the tradition's own rule selects for your place.
Finding the Ekadashi date in the USA, UK and Canada
Our Ekadashi pages are calculated per place rather than copied from an Indian table. See Ekadashi dates in the USA, the UK and Canada for 2027, each with the fast day and parana window worked out for the local sunrise. The full Ekadashi 2026 list covers the rest of this year, including the two extra Ekadashis, Padmini and Parama, from Adhik Jyeshtha that make 2026 a year of 26.
For any single day, the London panchang gives sunrise, moonrise and the tithi with the time it ends, so you can see the rule being applied rather than take the date on trust.