The class Date represents a specific instant in time, with millisecond precision.

java.util.Calendar and java.util.GregorianCalendar
are much more adept at handling and manipulating dates.

Here is a simple example of comparing 2 like dates using GregorianCalendar:

        //set both calendarA and calendarB to the date:
        //April 6th, 2002
        Calendar calendarA = new GregorianCalendar(2002,4,6);
        Calendar calendarB = new GregorianCalendar(2002,4,6);

        if(calendarA.equals(calendarB)) {
            System.out.println("Yup..they are equal!");
        }
        else{
            System.out.println("Dang...not equal.");
        }

Also take a look at SimpleDateFormat for a nice way to format output of Calendar objects.

Good Luck!

Dave