how to use get_the_date

I’m trying to get the publish date of the page to display with the title but all thats coming up is this “%A %B %e%q, %Y”. Obviously the date isn’t being properly retrieved. Heres some of my code:

<?php $mypages = get_pages( $args );
		foreach( $mypages as $post ) : setup_postdata($post); ?>
			<?php if (has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID ) ); ?>
			<?php $date = get_the_date( $d ); ?>
			<div id="news">
				<div class="news_excerpt">
					<a href="<?php echo get_page_link( $page->ID ); ?>"><h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2></a><h3><?php echo $date; ?></h3>

the page: http://occa-art.com/cai-yuan/news/