How to get start and end date of a year?

Question

I have to use the Java Date class for this problem (it interfaces with something out of my control).

How do I get the start and end date of a year and then

Answer 1

Update: The Joda-Time library is now in maintenance mode with its team advising migration to the java.time classes. See the correct java.time Answer by Przemek.

Time Zone

The other Answers ignore the crucial issue of time zone.

Joda-Time

Avoid doing date-time work with the notoriously troublesome java.util.Date class. Instead use either Joda-Time or java.time. Convert to j.u.Date objects as needed for interoperability.

DateTimeZone zone = DateTimeZone.forID( "America/Montreal" ) ;
int year = 2015 ;
DateTime firstOfYear = new DateTime( year , DateTimeConstants.JANUARY , 1 , 0 , 0 , zone ) ;
DateTime firstOfNextYear = firstOfYear.plusYears( 1 ) ;
DateTime firstMomentOfLastDayOfYear = firstOfNextYear.minusDays( 1 ) ;

Convert To java.util.Date

Convert to j.u.Date as needed.

java.util.Date d = firstOfYear.toDate() ;