Actually, the official New Year’s Day of Thailand has undergone several changes. Once it used to fall at the end of November. Later, during the reign of King Rama V(1868-1910) it was moved to a date round about April and then New Year’s Day was changed to April the first. The universal practice of celebrating the new year on January 1 was adopted in 1941 in deference to the western calendar and this is one of a number of changes aimed at modernising the country.