Playing Mahjong-Reliving My Favorite Activity During My Childhood Years
Dodie, Ditas, Carenna, Alix, Brendan and Yuka playing Mahjong during Macrine's one Year Waksi Celebration, August 8, 2021
Dodie,
Alix, Brendan ( Alix Apartment Mate), and Yuka playing the Game with me
as the Adviser/Consultant if they have questions, Dec 19. 2021 ( My
87th Party Lunch). My real BD is Dec 20. Alix, my granddaughter (
Dodie's oldest daughter) birthday is also Decemeber 20, but she is 60
years youner than me.
Have you heard of the tile game mahjong? I associate the word mahjong
with the following:
childhood and teenage years, parties, reunions, my mother, addiction
and relatives and Barotac Viejo, Iloilo. How about you?
A Mahjong Set-We have 2 mahjong sets-the cheap(plastic) and expensive( ivory) in the Philippines.
I learned this tile game when I was a child. It is mostly a game of
luck, once you learned the basics of the game. This tile game is similar
to the card game, gin rummy, but played with tiles. It is a game that
most Filipina housewives are addicted to. I am sure if you reside in the
Philippines or Hongkong, this game must be very familiar to you. You
may be even addicted to it.
My mother taught me as well as my brothers and sisters how to play
mahjong when we were growing up in the Philippines. We have two mahjong
sets in the house. The cheap one was made of plastic which we used
quite often and the expensive one made of ivory. The one made of ivory,
we only used on special occasion when we celebrate birthdays, weddings
and other special events when I was growing up in the Philippines.
According to my mother, I started playing mahjong very well when I was
only 5 years old. It is a game of luck with a little skill involve once
you learn the basics. I also learned how to play a card game called
"Pangingue" in the Philippines, probably similar to pinochle, but
different from gin rummy. Mahjong can be played on line or you can buy a
disk and play it in your computer.
I have a disk (
Hongkong mahjong) in my computer, but it has been a while
since I played this game. Mahjong like any gambling game is very
addictive. I have heard that a close relatives in the Philippines died
of tuberculosis(TV) because he played mahjong almost all day and do
nothing else. Unbelievable,if this is true.
Mahjong rules and specifics varies from region to region in the
Philippines, but it is still a favorite past time of the middle class in
the Philippines. A lot of Filipina housewives are addicted to mahjong.
Besides mahjong there are two card games popular in Marinduque and other
parts of the Philippines are PIKWA and TONG-IT. A number of housewives
in my neighborhood in Amoingon, Boac, Marinduque play Tong-it every
afternoon, both for recreation and a little gambling activity. We play
Tong-it during a party break as a family game but no betting involved,
when we are in Marinduque.
For rules and instruction how to play Mahjong read Wikipedia or ask a
friend or relative for a demonstration. Once you learned the game, be
careful it could be very, very addictive. But again, it is an excellent
way to get rid of your boredom and the long, long hot summer in the
Philippines. Here's a summary of the game from Wikipedia.org
"Mahjong, also spelled majiang, mah jongg, and numerous other variants,
is a game that originated in China. It is commonly played by four
players (with some three-player variations found in South Korea and
Japan). The game and its regional variants are widely played throughout
Eastern and South Eastern Asia and have a small following in Western
countries. Similar to the Western card game rummy, mahjong is a game of
skill, strategy, and calculation and involves a degree of chance.
The game is played with a set of
144 tiles based on Chinese characters
and symbols, although some regional variations use a different number of
tiles. In most variations, each player begins by receiving
13 tiles.(In
Iloilo we used
16 tiles). In turn players draw and discard tiles
until they complete a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form four
groups (melds) and a pair (head).
There are fairly standard rules about
how a piece is drawn, stolen from another player and thus melded, the
use of simples (numbered tiles) and honors (winds and dragons), the
kinds of melds, and the order of dealing and play. However there are
many regional variations in the rules; in addition, the scoring system
and the minimum hand necessary to win varies significantly based on the
local rules being used".
So my dear friends and relatives, if you have a few hours to relax why
not play mahjong? The set could be purchased on-line or in some gift
shop stores in big cities China Town.
There are on-lines sites to
play mahjong. Be sure it is Hongkong mahjong. The basic game is simple,
but the addicted players/experts can make it complicated by scoring and
aiming for harder combination and levels. Again it could develop into a
gambling habit. Here's the site for the basic game. Again, in the
Philippines we used 16 tiles instead of 13.
https://www.mahjongtime.com/hong-kong-mahjong-rules-2.html
Here's
some common but harder combination and levels of play for the advance
players. 7 Pairs ( 16 tiles ), all Pung, all Chow, Pure ( all same
suits), Placis ( one suit with winds), Escalera (1 to 9 meld of same
suit) and many other variations especially with a joker. A joker is
a universal tile that can be used for any tile. Playing with a joker
makes the game faster, so in many places harder levels and combination
is the name of the Game.
Meanwhile, enjoy this photo of my Christmas tree this year
