diff --git a/src/filters/date.ts b/src/filters/date.ts
index 33bed77248..62156a1cca 100644
--- a/src/filters/date.ts
+++ b/src/filters/date.ts
@@ -1,11 +1,15 @@
-import { toValue, stringify, isString, isNumber, TimezoneDate, LiquidDate, strftime } from '../util'
+import { toValue, stringify, isString, isNumber, TimezoneDate, LiquidDate, strftime, isNil } from '../util'
 import { FilterImpl } from '../template'
 
-export function date (this: FilterImpl, v: string | Date, format: string, timezoneOffset?: number | string) {
+const DEFAULT_FMT = '%A, %B %-e, %Y at %-l:%M %P %z'
+
+export function date (this: FilterImpl, v: string | Date, format?: string, timezoneOffset?: number | string) {
   const opts = this.context.opts
   let date: LiquidDate
   v = toValue(v)
-  format = stringify(format)
+  format = toValue(format)
+  if (isNil(format)) format = DEFAULT_FMT
+  else format = stringify(format)
   if (v === 'now' || v === 'today') {
     date = new Date()
   } else if (isNumber(v)) {
diff --git a/test/e2e/issues.ts b/test/e2e/issues.ts
index ba6af67a23..0e4f332f92 100644
--- a/test/e2e/issues.ts
+++ b/test/e2e/issues.ts
@@ -362,4 +362,19 @@ describe('Issues', function () {
     const html = await liquid.parseAndRender(tpl, ctx)
     expect(html).to.equal('FOO')
   })
+  it('#573 date filter should return parsed input when no format is provided', async () => {
+    const liquid = new Liquid()
+    liquid.registerTag('metadata_file', {
+      parse (tagToken: TagToken, remainTokens: TopLevelToken[]) {
+        this.str = tagToken.args
+      },
+      async render (ctx: Context) {
+        const content = await Promise.resolve(`{{${this.str}}}`)
+        return this.liquid.parseAndRender(content.toString(), ctx)
+      }
+    })
+    const tpl = `{{ 'now' | date }}`
+    const html = await liquid.parseAndRender(tpl)
+    expect(html).to.match(/\w+, January \d+, 2023 at \d+:\d\d [ap]m [-+]\d\d\d\d/)
+  })
 })
diff --git a/test/integration/filters/date.ts b/test/integration/filters/date.ts
index ea6902d3cb..ce8987cce2 100644
--- a/test/integration/filters/date.ts
+++ b/test/integration/filters/date.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ describe('filters/date', function () {
     const date = new Date()
     return test('{{ date | date:"%a %b %d %Y"}}', { date }, date.toDateString())
   })
+  it('should support "now"', function () {
+    return test('{{ "now" | date }}', /\w+, January \d+, 2023 at \d+:\d\d [ap]m [-+]\d\d\d\d/)
+  })
   it('should create a new Date when given "now"', function () {
     return test('{{ "now" | date: "%Y"}}', (new Date()).getFullYear().toString())
   })
@@ -64,6 +67,9 @@ describe('filters/date', function () {
     it('should support timezone offset argument', function () {
       return test('{{ "1990-12-31T23:00:00Z" | date: "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S", 360}}', '1990-12-31T17:00:00')
     })
+    it('should support timezone without format', function () {
+      return test('{{ "2022-12-08T03:22:18.000Z" | date: nil, "America/Cayman" }}', 'Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 10:22 pm -0500')
+    })
     it('should support timezone name argument', function () {
       return test('{{ "1990-12-31T23:00:00Z" | date: "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S", "Asia/Colombo" }}', '1991-01-01T04:30:00')
     })
diff --git a/test/stub/render.ts b/test/stub/render.ts
index a212a61971..b11419a044 100644
--- a/test/stub/render.ts
+++ b/test/stub/render.ts
@@ -8,11 +8,13 @@ export function render (src: string, ctx?: object) {
   return liquid.parseAndRender(src, ctx)
 }
 
-export async function test (src: string, ctx: object | string, expected?: string, opts?: LiquidOptions) {
+export async function test (src: string, ctx: object | string, expected?: string | RegExp, opts?: LiquidOptions) {
   if (expected === undefined) {
     expected = ctx as string
     ctx = {}
   }
   const engine = opts ? new Liquid(opts) : liquid
-  return expect(await engine.parseAndRender(src, ctx as object)).to.equal(expected)
+  const result = await engine.parseAndRender(src, ctx as object)
+  if (expected instanceof RegExp) return expect(result).to.match(expected)
+  return expect(result).to.equal(expected)
 }