Papmochani Ekadashi is the last Ekadashi before the lunar new year, and many people use it as a day of reflection. The name means the remover of sins, and the story it tells is not about a great crime but about a lapse of attention that a good person recovers from. It comes in the spring, as the days warm.
Papmochani Ekadashi falls in the Krishna paksha, the waning fortnight, of Phalguna in the amanta calendar (months that end at the new Moon). In the purnimanta calendar of north India, where the month ends at the full Moon, the same fortnight belongs to Chaitra.
The katha
For Papmochani Ekadashi, as for the other named Ekadashis, the tradition points to the Padma Purana and the Bhavishyottara Purana, in which a teacher answers a king or a sage in turn, and printed versions differ in small details. The story is that of a young sage and a celestial dancer.
In the forest of Chaitraratha, a lovely wood where the gods themselves came to walk, a young sage named Medhavi, the son of Chyavana, was devoted to Shiva and spent his days in meditation. Indra, uneasy at the strength of his austerity, sent the apsara Manjughosha to distract him, and Kamadeva, the god of love, joined in.
She sang near his hermitage, and the sage, disturbed, forgot his practice. They lived together for many years, though he had thought it only a short time. One day she asked permission to return to heaven, and he realised that fifty-seven years had passed. Angry at himself and at her, he cursed her to become a pishachi, a spirit, for the harm she had done to his practice.
Manjughosha pleaded for release, and the sage, calming, told her to keep the Ekadashi of the dark half of the month (Chaitra in the north Indian reckoning), which the tradition names Papmochani. She did so and was freed, and Medhavi, when he told his father what had happened, was told to keep it as well. The story is told with sympathy for both: attention can slip, and a vrat gives a person a way back.
How the fast is kept
Observance is the same as for other Ekadashis, with worship of Vishnu, a lamp, tulsi and a quiet day. Many families treat it as a day for gentle self-examination, remembering a thing they would like to put right and resolving to do so.
Because it falls at the end of the old year, some households also give food or money to those in need, as a way of settling accounts before the new year begins.
Most printed calendars place Papmochani Ekadashi by the sunrise test, and so does this page. Households that follow a Vaishnava teacher may be given the next day for Papmochani Ekadashi, because their rule excludes a tithi touched by Dashami at dawn. On the morning after, the parana is taken within the window shown for your city, after sunrise, before Dwadashi ends and outside Hari Vasara. Choose a fast for Papmochani Ekadashi that you can keep comfortably. A person with a health condition, or anyone taking regular medicine, should speak to a doctor first, and a gentler fast of fruit and milk is accepted by every tradition.
Where it sits in the year
In the round of the year, Amalaki Ekadashi comes before Papmochani Ekadashi and Kamada Ekadashi after it. Every Ekadashi of the year is listed on the Ekadashi page; the steps of worship for Papmochani Ekadashi are in the Ekadashi vrat vidhi, and the tithi itself is explained on the Ekadashi tithi page.