Posted on: Sunday, August 22, 2004

OUR HONOLULU

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Listen closely. There's not a moment to lose. Put down the newspaper and run, don't walk, to the sink. Fill a bottle with water and cork it. Fill as many bottles as you have stoppers for. The earlier you do it today, the better.

Water bottled on this day of the year will be preserved forever exactly the way you bottled it. Bottled water from yesterday, or tomorrow, might turn bad.

"I tried bottling water a week before. It turned green with algae," said Lonnie Ai, who lives on Kapi'olani Boulevard. "I have a few bottles sitting under the air conditioner that I bottled 12 years ago and it's still nice. The earlier you bottle your water in the morning, the better."

Peter Ko, a medical doctor who taught at the University of Southern California, said he's a skeptic but admits that a bottle of six-year-old water that Ai gave him the other day is still clear.

Knowing that Advertiser readers should be kept informed, I invited Ai to my office. She brought along Ko; James Tan, publisher of the Hawai'i Chinese News; and Mowdy J. Lew, editor, who has a degree in ancient Chinese history from Tunghai University in Taiwan.

Lew said today is July 7 on the Chinese lunar calendar, a day that has been celebrated for centuries by Chinese children and star-crossed lovers and people who bottle water. There's a legend about it.

Long ago, a mother fairy in the sky had seven children. The youngest fairy, a girl, looked down from the sky and saw a handsome boy tending a water buffalo. She came to Earth, fell in love and married him. They had two adorable children, both boys.

About that time, the mother fairy noticed that her daughter had married without her permission, a no-no in ancient China. The mother fairy came down and snatched her daughter back into the sky, with the husband and children close behind. The mother fairy pulled out her hairpin and drew a line like a river of stars (the Milky Way) between the distraught couple, separating them forever.

However, the mother fairy relented enough to let the daughter see her husband and children once a year. Lovebirds formed a bridge over the river of stars so the family could meet in the middle. Today is the anniversary of this auspicious event.

According to Ko, the purity of love between the husband and wife sterilized the water in the river. Actually, Lew said there are many versions of the legend because mothers have been telling it to their children for centuries. That's why it's important to bottle your water immediately.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.