Is there a way in freemarker to compare dates to test if the date is today or yesterday... or do I have to write code in Java to do these tests?

I basically want to do this:

<#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 formatDate
------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
<#macro formatDate date showTime=true>
    <#if date??>
        <span class="Date">
            <#if date?is_today>
                Today
            <#elseif date?is_yesterday>
                Yesterday
            <#else>
                ${date?date}
            </#if>
        </span>
        <#if showTime>
            <span class="Time">${date?time}</span>
        </#if>
    </#if>
</#macro>

EDIT: My best guess to implement this is to pass "today" and "yesterday" into the model for the pages that use this function and then compare the date values against these 2 objects in the model. I am out of out of options, but I'd rather not have to do this for every page that uses this macro. Any other options that are nicer?

<#if date??>
    <span class="Date">
        <#if date?date?string.short == today?date?string.short>
            Today
        <#elseif date?date?string.short == yesterday?date?string.short>
            Yesterday
        <#else>
            ${date?date}
        </#if>
    </span>
    <#if showTime>
        <span class="Time">${date?time}</span>
    </#if>
</#if>