SOQL queries with date parameters - please help

Hi there

VERY new to SOQL, though I have some knowledge of SQL.

Am getting an unexpected token error with the following query:

SELECT Id, Name, class_begin_date__c, class_end_date__c, class_location__c FROM Class__c
WHERE class_begin_date__c = 01/01/2008
AND class_end_date__c = 01/01/2009

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I will eventually be including something similar in a Visualforce page which will allow people to refine search results based on To and From dates they enter.

Thanks.