Group gathers at Maridon Museum for weekly mahjong
On Friday, March 28, seven of the usual attendees of the Maridon Museum’s weekly mahjong session gathered around the square tables to play using the 2024 league card for probably the last time.
The group was getting tired of the card anyway; some of the players had checked off nearly all of the listed winning hands, which the National Mah Jongg League composes for the card each year. The 2025 card is coming out in April, and the attendees of the weekly game at the Maridon were ready for a new challenge.
Despite the many weeks of playing with the same card, Ruth Stiltz, of Butler, still managed to check off one more winning combination Friday.
“Every year you get a new card,” Stiltz said. “We’ve been playing this one for a year. It’s a bit like rummy, because there are things that are runs, sets.”
The weekly mahjong sessions at the Maridon Museum are a casual get-together where people bring their tiles and cards to play the Chinese game and socialize with one another. Several of the players at the session Friday said they did not have a confident grasp on the tile game when they first came to the museum to play, but each eventually learned through play.
Carole Fruehstorfer, a docent at the Maridon Museum, said mahjong is best learned through play, because the game involves a lot of action and player thought. The low-stakes and social atmosphere of the museum sessions provides a good environment for new players to learn, she said.
“It seems so complicated at first, but you have to just jump in and try it out,” Fruehstorfer said. “After a while you catch on, and there’s little things you pick up on and little strategies.”
Fruehstorfer said the group has been playing mahjong at the Maridon pretty much weekly for about 12 years, and she, herself, has long been a part of the group.
The sessions at the Maridon require no entry fee, and some players even bring extra cards so newcomers can try the game out before deciding to dive in and order their own from the national league, according to Fruehstorfer.
Mahjong — or “Maahj,” as it is often called — is a fascinating, rummy-like game played with tiles rather than cards. The game originated in China, but its exact origins are shrouded in story and myth, according to the National Mah Jongg League. More recent investigations point to early versions of the game appearing as recently as 150 years ago in China as a variant of card games. The league also says there is general agreement that the game originated in China, and was popularized in the U.S. by Joseph Babcock at the beginning of the 20th century.
Fruehstorfer said she originally learned how to play when she was in China, where she also bought her first set of mahjong tiles to bring back with her to play at home. She quickly learned, however, that the Chinese and U.S. versions of the game were different, but she ended up picking up the domestic rules so she could play with fans stateside.
Toni Graham, of Butler, said she learned the game in New York, where mahjong fans are more apt to raise the stakes a little.
“I learned in New York. It’s big time,” Graham said.
The players at the Maridon on Fridays don’t put any money down to play, though — some of them just make a donation of a few dollars to the museum as thanks for the venue. While the players dumped unneeded tiles and dove for discards looking to complete a hand first, they also talked about goings on and caught up on life events. Fruehstorfer said the casual environment helps keep the sessions enjoyable, aside from the fun and ever-changing luck of the game.
“We’re here for fun and that’s the basic idea,” Fruehstorfer said. “You have a little socialization and you use your brain a little bit, and of course we don't play cutthroat.”
Stiltz commented that she only started playing mahjong after inheriting a set of tiles.
“My mother played in Asheville, and when she passed away I ended up with her tiles, which are expensive,” Stiltz said. “I met with Nancy and she ended up teaching me, and then she said I was ready for this group.”
The National Mah Jongg League describes some rules to American Mah Jongg for developing players. It uses a card of “Standard Hands,” against which all games are played; and these cards are changed annually. American mahjong uses more tiles, notably the Joker, which can be used to complete several combinations of hands. The American version also begins with “Charleston,” which is when all of the players pass three unwanted tiles from one player to another.
Mahjong can be played in groups of as little as three players per set of tiles. Each player’s turn sees them draw a tile from the unused pile, or they can pick up the most recently discarded tile in an attempt to get the tiles necessary to complete a hand included in the card book.
As the players pointed out Friday, mahjong can be played using different strategies that are preferred by the player. As she played the game, Stiltz pointed out that you can see what hand another player may be going for by looking at what tiles they discard and which ones they set atop their rack. Tiles picked up after being discarded by another player have to be displayed, so if one player picks up several 2s or 3s, another player can look at their own card to see what hand they are trying to complete for a victory.
“Someone might throw away a tile that you need, and you have to have a pair,” Stiltz said. “You have to come up with hands from the tiles in front of you, so you just do different sets.”
The game ends when a player completes a hand from the book and says “mahjong!” Games can last a few minutes, or players can play until there are no more tiles to draw — a “wall game.”
Fruehstorfer said mahjong is a fun game to play, even years later because of the different hands you can go for to win and the luck involved in attaining those hands. Fruehstorfer is a fan of going for the concealed-hand wins, in which the player doesn’t take any tiles from the discard pile for the win.
“You form your own strategies when you get familiar with things,” Fruehstorfer said. “But there’s so much luck involved.”
Nancy Kaufman, of Butler, said that although the game can be tough at first, it is fun to play once you can hold your own in a match.
“It’s not like a card game where you just sit down and learn it in one game,” Kaufman said. “Sometimes it takes a while. You can’t just read about it. You have to play.”
The Maridon Museum, 322 N. McKean St. in Butler, hosts mahjong sessions at 12:30 p.m. every Friday, and Fruehstorfer said they are free to attend, although some players give a voluntary donation to the museum.
