When is the Thai New Year?

[Big Boy]

I've always assumed that Songkran would mark the time when the Thai Year moved up a notch i.e. it's currently 2555, and I've assumed some time this month it would become 2556. However, I've just been reading an advert on one of our sister forums, and it's advertising an event to be held on 29 Apr 2555. Is this a typo, or are my assumptions wrong?

Can somebody please clarify for me?

[Babylon]

Thais celebrate new year at Songkran, but the actual number clicks over 1st Jan, same as the rest of the world, guess just to make it less confusing?

[Big Boy]

Thanks Babylon - it's obviously confused me for years

[Roel]

It used to change in April on the first day of Songkran. But on 1 January 1941 the Thai calender was synchronized with our Gregorian calender. The nice thing about these kind of forum questions is that it often leads to a nice informative read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_solar_calendar

[Big Boy]

Thanks Roel, that was an interesting read. It also goes someway to explaining why my wife always waited for her genuine Thai calendar from the local Thai Temple here in the UK each year. Obviously there's a lot more to reading a Thai calendar than just days and months.