trying to format a date on jade template

Not particularly easy unfortunately. You'll need a function to format a string either inside your template, or outside (and pass the pretty string).

Something like this (JADE)

-function prettyDate(dateString){
    //if it's already a date object and not a string you don't need this line:
    -var date = new Date(dateString);
    -var d = date.getDate();
    -var monthNames = [ "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun",
"Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec" ];
    -var m = monthNames[date.getMonth()];
    -var y = date.getFullYear();
    -return d+' '+m+' '+y;
-}


tr
   td #{prettyDate(currentCourses[0].start)}

My solution is:

Add momentjs to your express application locals like this:
app.locals.moment = require('moment');

Then you can use moment in any jade files:
span='(Created at: ' + moment(obj.createTime).format("YYYY/MM/DD") + ')'

Reference:
Making use of utility libraries in server-side Jade templates