By “No Jokers Here”
Game playing or mind sports are an important factor in maintaining mental health which becomes even more crucial as we age.

The skills involved, such as problem solving, developing strategies and prolonged concentration, lower the risk of age-related diseases like dementia.

The social aspect of playing face to face wards off depression, facilitates happiness and the laughter that accompanies it releases “feel good” endorphins. 

Recreation, enjoyment and entertainment are things we naturally want to do – it isn’t and shouldn’t be, something we need to be coerced into. The challenge and excitement of competitive play or losing yourself in a pleasurable activity for the sheer fun of it, all count as play. And so it is that we come to Mahjong.

More Beneficial
Learning a new game or activity is much more beneficial than doing the same thing every day like Sudoku or Wordle puzzles. Although it has an ancient “feel” to it, Mahjong only came into being in late 19th century China. Played with tiles (136 of them) the draw and discard mode of play is directed toward forming melds of sequences and identical tiles. It has some parallels with the various rummy games played with either cards or tiles only some million times better (some Trump-like fact and figure checking might be appropriate at this juncture).

At Donald
Mahjong has been successfully and enthusiastically introduced as a new activity at the Donald Senior Citizens Club. For the moment Thursday afternoon from 1:30 p.m. is game day but we hope to expand on that soon.

We were fortunate to have the lovely Li-Yan Warren guide us and teach us the fundamentals. Mahjong has an immediate feel good impact and we find that people are naturally drawn to it. Shuffling tiles, building walls, ‘Chow’ing, ‘Pong’ing and ultimately ‘Mahjong’ing – it’s all movement and exclamation. Loads of fun and highly social. 

While most of us are still struggling to differentiate between Pongs and Chows, some of us have yet to correctly identify the Suit symbols for Bamboos, Balls and 10,00s, let alone correctly recognise the four Winds and the three Dragons, the opportunity to laugh at ourselves is never lost. Devising and implementing winning strategies is still dormant on some distant horizon for the majority of us.

Beware
When mentioning Mahjong in conversation I’m amazed that so many people play Mahjong on their phones and tablets, but beware – “real” face-to-face Mahjong is very different to the online versions. Nevertheless, it’s undeniable – people in general are genuinely interested in Mahjong for a variety of reasons. 

So, if you’re keen to learn or wish to play against our relatively inexperienced, experienced players just rock up on any Thursday afternoon and if that doesn’t suit, simply register your interest with any Donald Senior Citizens Club member and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.

The Donald Senior Citizens Club was able to purchase a specialised Mahjong Table complete with drink holders and tile trays as well as a large, premium quality tile set with funds from last year’s Victorian Seniors Festival disbursed to various organisations across the shire by the Buloke Council.

We would also like to point out that there is no age restriction in place for Donald Senior Citizens Club membership and participation. We are an equal opportunity organisation and, as such, in line with current political correctness; there can be no discrimination based on age. Accordingly, we do not discriminate against those who may not yet have had the opportunity to amass, accumulate, and celebrate as many birthdays as we have. So, come along all you kids, adolescents, young adults, middle-agers and join us oldies in some Mahjong fun.