In the Club is a recurring series in which the Scene explores local social club offerings.
On a recent sunny summer afternoon, the women of Mahjong & Magnolias gather at a home in Franklin. The group of friends gets together once a week to eat lunch, share stories and — of course — play mahjong.
The goal of the traditional Chinese tile-based game is to be the first player to complete one of the hands on a mahjong playing card. There are many options — the National Mah Jongg League releases new cards each year. It can certainly be overwhelming at first, but if you can relate the game to something you’re already familiar with — like the card game rummy — you’ll start to see the parallels and form sets and runs with your 14 tiles by drawing and discarding as you look for the numbers, suits and special tiles to form your chosen hand.
These ladies first learned how to play mahjong in 2019 when Paige Cleveland asked other moms of Battle Ground Academy students if they’d like to learn. After a teacher came out to show them the basics, Cleveland — along with Meg Dillard, Sarah Hodrick, Lyn Knopf, Mary Looney, Jennifer Parker and Karen Such — began to meet on Wednesdays for an afternoon game.
“I never dreamed we’d still be doing it six years later,” Cleveland says. “It started out as just playing, but then we were like, ‘Why doesn’t everyone get dressed up? … Wouldn’t it be fun for whoever’s hosting?’ You can pull out … everything you registered for [when you got married] that you never use.”
The gathering turned into more than just an opportunity to play a game — it’s a moment for the group’s Southern hospitality to shine. They get dressed up, and each member takes a turn hosting, building a tablescape for lunch and setting out carefully curated mahjong tables.
Six years later, not only are they still meeting, they also run the popular Mahjong & Magnolias Instagram account (@mahjongandmagnolias), which has more than 23,000 followers. There and on the group’s website, they share everything from where to get dresses to what kinds of tablecloths they prefer. They even started creating their own mahjong playing cards. Right now they sell a “South” and a “Nashville” card, and they plan to release a “Merry Mahjong” holiday card later this year.
“We started [saying], ‘We could do these Southern cards, we could do these state cards,’” Knopf explains, “and it was a natural progression that we made with hosting [to say], ‘Let’s do coasters, let’s do napkin holders.’” She says working together has been a fun way to see how each of the moms brings something to the table from their previous line of work.
Cleveland agrees, saying they couldn’t do what they’re doing now without each of the special touches that everyone brings.
“With launching the Instagram [account],” Hodrick says, “there were so many people that wanted to either come play or wanted to know how we got started. And we want this for other people too. We want them to know how to start a group.”
Mahjong & Magnolias has put people who reached out in touch with teachers and with one another so they can start their own groups. For those who want to learn for themselves, Fork of the South in The Factory at Franklin hosts a weekly Mahjong Monday, where people of all playing levels are welcome. Fork of the South owner Stefanie Gorman says she just wants everyone to come and feel welcome at her table.
“If you just want to be like the casual player,” Gorman says, “I think that you can come every week and build those skills and not feel as intimidated.”
Gorman says she loves that every week she has Monday to look forward to — gathering with friends, catching up and playing the game.
