The Wensburg Room at Greenfield’s Stephenson Memorial overflowed with “Aloha Spirit” last Monday as women from 14 area towns gathered to play Mah Jongg and raise money for Alzheimer’s research.
Organized by Susan Greer of Hancock, the Hawaiian-themed tournament marked the 14th biannual gathering of regional Mah Jongg enthusiasts. The event reached its 44-player room capacity with a waitlist.
“This has been a phenomenal thing,” Greer said. “We always have 44 people and a waitlist. It’s just a lot of fun.”
“These parties are something I concocted, and now we do two a year, in the spring and fall, and people just seem to love it. You have to sign up early, or we run out of space. We’ve raised a lot of money for Alzheimers research,” Greer said.
Participants paid a $12 entry fee covering game play and a buffet lunch, and the event also offered raffle prizes and a 50/50 cash raffle. Michelle Berkens, who ran the 50/50 raffle, said Monday’s event raised more than $310 for the national fundraiser “Do What You Love to End ALZ.” To date, the group has donated $2,896 to Alzheimer’s research.
“My mother had Alzheimer’s, and a lot of people in our group have had family members impacted by dementia, so this is a cause that matters to us,” Berkens said.
A tactile workout for the mind
Players cited the game’s sensory component— the sound and feel of “washing” hundreds of tiles – along with the social camaraderie and cognitive demands of American Mah Jongg, a four-player game of strategy and chance derived from 19th-century Chinese card games and popularized in the United States during the 1920s.
Unlike mobile matching apps that borrow the name, traditional Mah Jongg requires players to draw and discard character-inscribed tiles from four winds (North, South, East, West) to match complex combinations published annually by the National Mah Jongg League.
“There are over a thousand combinations of tiles. It’s very challenging,” said Pam Morrison, who has played for three years. “You’re actually touching the tiles, you’re moving, and you’re surrounded by people.”
Marcia Murdock said she loves “the sound of the game.”
“I just love it. I love the dexterity, I love the sound of it, I love the interaction. I love the clicking of the tiles; the whole experience, ” said Murdock. “It’s like how we played those old classic board games growing up.”
Murdock said her 13-year-old granddaughter is learning to play Mah Jongg in an advanced math class.
“That’s how they’re starting her math class, by learning Mah Jongg. Young people pick it up really quickly,” Murdock said.
Cheryl Riley said she looks forward to the new Mah Jongg hands coming out every year in March.
“Every year we get a whole set of new hands. This is how you really play Mah Jongg,” Riley said. “It gets you off the screen, and it gets you out and about. You meet people, and it’s a blast.”
Growing popularity in the region
Regular games have taken root across the Monadnock region, with active groups meeting at town libraries, recreation spaces, and community halls in Peterborough, Dublin, Jaffrey, Hancock, and Greenfield.
“There’s a game every day somewhere in the region,” said Caroline Gulas of Peterborough. “It’s a wonderful thing to do to stay sharp, and to get out and meet people, especially in the winter.”
Grisel Levene, who teaches a weekly game at the Dublin Community Center, said the game’s offline, physical nature is its primary draw.
“You can’t play Mah Jongg on your phone. Some apps claim to be Mah Jongg, but they are just matching games, and nothing like real Mah Jongg. If you’re playing a game on your phone, it’s not Mah Jongg,” Levene said. “It can only be played in person.”
In Greenfield, regular games organized by Linda Dodge have met Mondays at noon in the library’s Wensberg Room since 2021. Dodge, who started playing Mah Jongg in the Milford area before the COVID pandemic, said she has met people from all over southern New Hampshire through the game.
“It’s really nice being part of a group, and the game is both skill and luck,” Dodge said. “Everyone should give it a try.”
Local games and regional tournament listings are maintained through library bulletins, community center calendars, and regional directories such as Modern Mahjong.
