diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 9f90891c3744ae9517029a764969df6cc4868357..160c5231da368139a4a94df6cee5ec9ea49c762d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -97,6 +97,8 @@ dist:
 	cp src/deps.mk /tmp/feh-${VERSION}/src/deps.mk
 	sed -i 's/^VERSION ?= .*$$/VERSION ?= ${VERSION}/' \
 		/tmp/feh-${VERSION}/config.mk
+	sed -i 's/^MAN_DATE ?= .*$$/MAN_DATE ?= ${MAN_DATE}/' \
+		/tmp/feh-${VERSION}/config.mk
 	tar -C /tmp -cjf ../feh-${VERSION}.tar.bz2 feh-${VERSION}
 	rm -r /tmp/feh-${VERSION}
 
diff --git a/config.mk b/config.mk
index a7356c80328fa55aaaef5d8042e258ea9c986a81..abcb6d8d1066cd889fb089cd59b57990275901f7 100644
--- a/config.mk
+++ b/config.mk
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ else
 	MAN_EXIF = disabled
 endif
 
+MAN_DATE ?= ${shell date '+%B %d, %Y'}
 
 # Uncomment this to use dmalloc
 #CFLAGS += -DWITH_DMALLOC
diff --git a/man/Makefile b/man/Makefile
index 1927963d4acf8dce22f85732f8fa0e2b5e00de9f..65f2bc27ad9fbe74cd380411aacd1871e4824409 100644
--- a/man/Makefile
+++ b/man/Makefile
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ all: ${TARGETS}
 .pre.1:
 	sed \
 	-e 's/\$$VERSION\$$/${VERSION}/g' \
-	-e 's/\$$DATE\$$/'"$$(date '+%B %d, %Y')"/g \
+	-e 's/\$$DATE\$$/${MAN_DATE}/g' \
 	-e 's/\$$MAN_CURL\$$/${MAN_CURL}/' \
 	-e 's/\$$MAN_DEBUG\$$/${MAN_DEBUG}/' \
 	-e 's/\$$MAN_EXIF\$$/${MAN_EXIF}/' \