King Naresuan Day Now April 25

[george]

King Naresuan Day now April 25

BANGKOK: -- The Cabinet has decided that King Naresuan Maharat Day would fall on April 25 next year according to calculations made using the solar calendar, said Deputy government spokesman Danuporn Punnakan yesterday.

This would replace an earlier date calculated using the lunar calendar – the eighth day of the waxing moon in the sixth lunar month – as the date commemorating the great king’s death. The government and the public will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony to honour King Naresuan.

The Cabinet agreed yesterday to base the new date on the solar calendar, as it was more familiar to most people and would avoid the need for astrologers to calculate the date each year using the lunar calendar, Danuporn said.

He said the Cabinet also announced that Yutthahathi Day (the day commemorating King Naresuan’s triumph over the Burmese crown prince) would now fall on January 18 instead of January 25.

Neither days were public holidays, he said, adding that the change had been made to encourage more accurate historical research and that the Education ministry would make the necessary amendments to history textbooks used in schools.

Danuporn said that the change of date for Yutthahathi Day would not affect Thai Army Day, which also falls on January 25.

--The Nation 2005-11-30