Is it a new craze among women? I know it’s been around forever but I’ve suddenly been seeing mahjong parties for beginners and hearing of women playing every week.
I saw an event posted on Facebook for a beginner’s lesson at a local winery and clicked the “interested” button. That always gets me in trouble because immediately your “friends” see it before I remember to change it to only me. Well, someone saw it and wanted to go with me, so me being me, I said Okay.
It was last night from 5:30 until 8pm which I thought was a long time but there was a lot of instruction going on. The person who came with me, had played weekly for 12 years but had not played for 2 so she was rusty. Of course she won at our table against three newbies!
In case you’ve never played, four people play, each person has a rack with a “sweeper” to move your double stacked 19 tiles into the center when it’s your turn. My recollection is fuzzy, somehow you get 13 tiles on your rack but before you begin play, you have to give 3 up and get three from the other plays in a right, over (across), left, left, over, right pattern. Then there is a card – it’s a yearly card put out by mahjong international or something for $15! – and you use the card to select a “game” that YOU are playing to put the groupings together and when you have all the groupings, you say “mahjong!”. So you’re playing with four yet, you are all playing your own game. Eventually, everyone’s double 19 tiles are swept into the center and those are used to pick up and discard. If someone discards, the other three can try for it, but after that, it’s dead. And you can only pick up the discard if it’s going to complete a part of your game!
There were seven tables and three people helping which really wasn’t enough because one person had to play at one of the tables that had only 2 people. One table was not paying attention at all which was really annoying because they were right next to us and talking as the instructions were being given.
I enjoyed it, but when the woman I attended with talked about getting together to play weekly!, or every other week!, I froze because I didn’t like it that much! It reminded me of what I’ve vaguely heard about playing Bunco, or Left-Right-Center, women getting together at someone’s house eating and drinking and playing and honestly, that is just not me. And I’m not terribly competitive when it comes to this stuff, so I don’t feel the need to play every week to get better. It was just fun. I picture it more as “card parties” put on by organizations and you put together your group and go and play. Occasionally, not on a regular basis.
Have you ever played Mahjong? What did you think about it?
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 