Hmm, I do seem to remember it took me a bit of time to get this working in the templates. I'm not sure whether the date comparison works. I'm now doing this in a global so I can't compare it to what I had.
Try this:
<%if date > $begin_showing%>
If that still gives true for the example you gave then I think you'll need a global.
Try this:
<%if date > $begin_showing%>
If that still gives true for the example you gave then I think you'll need a global.
