Even though Mahjong was only developed in China in the 19th century, it feels like one of those games that has been around much longer. Without having known that, I would have guessed it was more on part with "Go" and "Mancala", but those have been around for 2000 to 4000 years, so I guess I would have been wrong.
The familiarity with Mahjong among most westerners is probably limited to the tile matching game that they played on their computer years ago, or scenes from TV and Movies where old Asian people are playing in the back of a laundry that the protagonist of the movie visits to gather information.
In the past decade or so, the real game of Mahjong has been expanding it's reach beyond those stereotypical back rooms and computerized versions into households and mall groups across the US.
My in-laws just happen to be one of those homes.
Make no mistake, I am far from an expert on the game of Mahjong. I have played maybe three times in my entire life. @mrsbozz on the other hand has played significantly more. Believe it or not, it all started with Scrabble. My wife, her mother, and her aunts used to get together about once every other month and play Scrabble.
This wasn't your average game of Scrabble or as many of you probably know it these days "Words with Friends". No, they played for money and the competition was cutthroat. They would spend hours upon hours playing game after game keeping a tally of who owed whom what. Use all of your tiles in a word? Everyone owes you a buck. Win the game? Everyone owes you two bucks. Some of the games got pretty intense to say the least.
After years of playing Scrabble, one of them decided to learn Mahjong and quite honestly the rest is history. There are four aunts that play as well as my wife and her mom. They often have to have more than one game going because Mahjong just works better with four players or so.
The Ceremony of Mahjong
If I had to sum up the game of Mahjong in a single word, that word would definitely be "ceremony". That's almost what it feels like when you are playing the game, that you are taking part in some ancient ceremony. There is a process for mixing up the tiles, then there is a process for picking your tiles. Finally, there is a process of discarding and trading tiles that all has to happen before you can even start playing the game.
Once you select your original tiles, you then have to pass a certain number to the left. Then to the right. Then across. Like I said, it is quite involved.
Once all of that is out of the way, you can then start playing the game. If I had to compare it to anything familiar in the West, it would probably be the game of Rummy. You have to make runs and groupings of tiles based on a card that each player purchases.
The card as you can see in the photo above changes each year (Chinese year), so you have to purchase a new card once a year. The groupings differ from year to year, so I am guessing every 12 years (Chinese Zodiac) things recycle.
As you begin play, the ceremony continues. Every time you discard a tile, you have to announce the tile you are discarding in case any other player wants it. Phrases like "three bam", "four crack", "South", and "soap" are not uncommon to be heard spoken at a table.
Needless to say it can get chaotic and you need to have a very good attention span to play. Perhaps that is part of the reason I have only played a handful of times. As I said, @mrsbozz gets together with her aunts and plays about once every other month. They on the other hand often go to gatherings in public places where other people also play Mahjong.
Think of the chess games you see in places like Central Park, but instead it is Mahjong in a mall food court.
They still play for money of course and when my wife comes home from a Sunday morning of playing, I always ask her how she did. Usually she talks about how one of her aunts was on a streak and won something like four games in a row.
They can often get several games into one session and they try to rotate around to each others houses to play.
About once or twice a year, they visit our house and spend the afternoon playing. Why in the afternoon when they play in the morning all the other times you might ask? Well, there is a very good reason for that and if you know me, you won't be surprised to find out it revolves around food.
You see, the "aunties" love it when I grill bratwurst for them. There is something about the process I use to grill "brats" that they just love and they always request that I make them when they come over to play.
Honestly, I don't do anything super special except cook them low and slow so that they get charred and crispy on the outside and stay super juicy on the inside. As I have mentioned in posts before, I don't pre boil my brats like a lot of people do. I simply throw them on the grill away from the coals and given them a good half hour to forty minutes to get up to temperature from raw.
As I said, everyone really digs them and they always ask to make sure I am going to be making brats for them when they schedule a playing session at our house. I don't really mind them taking over the space because I love to grill and listening to them socialize as they play is always a hoot.
If you are only used to playing the computerized version, you would probably be surprised to find out that Mahjong is actually a really social game. If you are looking for peace and quiet, you aren't going to find it when Mahjong is being played.
In fact, our dog Jovi usually retreats to the basement when they visit our house to play. She doesn't like the sound the tiles make when they rattle on the table as everyone empties their tray after a hand. It can be pretty jarring until you get used to it!
One thing to note, if you are thinking about starting a Mahjong group with your friends or family, good sets are not cheap. Just looking at Amazon.com, I am seeing that the average price of a set is right around $100. Sure, you can get sets for $50, or you can get them for $200 with a designer carrying case, but I think the set my wife has was right in the $100 to $120 range.
I'll be honest. Looking at the page, I am not sure what the difference is between "American Mahjong" and "Chinese Mahjong", but they seem to have sets for both variations. I know for a fact that @mrsbozz has the American version just looking at the sets.
If you are interested in learning more about it, I suggest you take a look at the Wiki page I linked earlier, or find a group that is playing in your local community and see if you can sit in on a game or two. I am sure they would love to teach you! Better yet, if you happen to be in my neck of the woods on the right day, stop in to have the "aunties" teach you. Just let me know in advance so I can have enough brats grilling!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
