diff --git a/docs/content/templates/functions.md b/docs/content/templates/functions.md
index 23bf2a769..10be0f7de 100644
--- a/docs/content/templates/functions.md
+++ b/docs/content/templates/functions.md
@@ -804,6 +804,10 @@ For more information about string translations, see [Translation of strings]({{<
 * `{{ (time "2016-05-28").YearDay }}` → 149
 * `{{ mul 1000 (time "2016-05-28T10:30:00.00+10:00").Unix }}` → 1464395400000 (Unix time in milliseconds)
 
+### now
+
+`now` returns the current local time as a [`time.Time`](https://godoc.org/time#Time).
+
 ## URLs
 ### absLangURL, relLangURL
 These are similar to the `absURL` and `relURL` relatives below, but will add the correct language prefix when the site is configured with more than one language.
diff --git a/tpl/template_funcs.go b/tpl/template_funcs.go
index c6bf66106..fd3337454 100644
--- a/tpl/template_funcs.go
+++ b/tpl/template_funcs.go
@@ -2146,6 +2146,7 @@ func initFuncMap() {
 		"modBool":       modBool,
 		"mul":           func(a, b interface{}) (interface{}, error) { return helpers.DoArithmetic(a, b, '*') },
 		"ne":            ne,
+		"now":           func() time.Time { return time.Now() },
 		"partial":       partial,
 		"partialCached": partialCached,
 		"plainify":      plainify,