On Christmas Day, a Brooklyn street was bustling
+
to bustle:
estar ajetreado
. Couples carrying grocery bags ran into friends on street corners, double-parked cars lined the avenue, and one man complained that he’d been circling the block for half an hour, looking for a parking spot. But there were no Christmas carols
+
carols:
villancicos
, no spruce trees
+
spruce trees:
abetos
lining the sidewalk outside delis
+
delis:
tiendas de comida preparada
and nary
+
nary:
ni una
a twinkling
+
to twinkle:
centellear
light in sight.
In Borough Park, home to one of the largest communities of Orthodox Jews outside of Israel, it was not Christmas. It was just Tuesday.
In most of New York City, tourists and locals did what they usually do to celebrate: They attended Christmas Mass
+
mass:
misa
at St. Patrick’s Cathedral or spent the afternoon in pajamas watching A Christmas Story . (Or Die Hard
+
Die Hard:
"La jungla de cristal"
. Please to argue
+
to argue:
discutir
among yourselves.) But there were also other rituals to be followed: Thousands of oft
+
oft:
a menudo
-disappointed but resolute New York Knicks fans steeled themselves
+
to steel oneself:
armarse de valor
for the team’s almost-annual Christmas Day game, this year against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Some families flocked
+
to flock:
acudir en masa
to homeless shelters and soup kitchens
+
soup kitchens:
comedores de beneficencia
, including local politicians, who donned
+
to don:
ponerse
plastic aprons
+
aprons:
delantales
and spooned out
+
spooned out:
echar cucharadas
yellow rice and collard greens
+
collard greens:
col berza
at a must-stop event in Harlem. And of course, Chinese restaurants in every corner of the city were preparing for one of their busiest days of the year, when people stand in line
+
to stand in line:
hacer cola
for hours in the cold for soup dumplings and Peking duck after a trip to the movies. There were no lines at China Glatt, Borough Park’s main Chinese restaurant. Around noon, orders
+
orders:
pedidos
started to roll in
+
to roll in:
llegar
for chicken and broccoli with brown rice. It was a perfectly unremarkable
+
unremarkable:
ordinario
lunch service.
A man came out of the kitchen, sipping
+
to sip:
sorber
egg drop soup
+
egg drop soup:
sopa de huevo
. Efraim P., who declined to give his last name because he did not have his boss’s permission, is a mashgiach , or an inspector of food in kosher restaurants. He had just finished his morning routine of picking over
+
to pick over:
elegir
the restaurant’s new deliveries of potatoes, carrots and frozen french fries.
“We appreciate the American holiday, we acknowledge that it’s there, but for us life goes on,” he said.
There is meaning to be found in the mundanity of Christmas in Borough Park, said David Greenfield, a former city councilman
+
city councilman:
concejal
who now runs the Met Council, a Jewish charity.
“It’s intentionally a regular day so that people don’t get the misimpression
+
misimpression:
impresión equivocada
that these American Jews are in fact celebrating a Christian holiday,” Greenfield said.
Depending on when you got your food, Mayor Bill de Blasio might have served you sweet potatoes
+
sweet potatoes:
boniatos
. If you came a bit later in the afternoon, Representative
+
representative:
senador
Adriano Espaillat probably served you egg salad. Either way, chances were that Councilman Andy King of the Bronx served you collard greens.
For hundreds of needy New Yorkers, their Christmas Day meal was served by a rotating cast of a dozen or so politicians.
National Action Network, founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton, has hosted a Christmas Day event for twenty-two years, and over time, it has become the go-to spot
+
go-to spot:
el lugar al que hay que ir
for politicians looking to serve the community and get some positive face time
+
face time:
ver en persona
with the media.
Other politicians were later introduced before they donned their aprons and gloves to serve food. For Sharpton, their presence only reaffirmed the success of the event.
“Politicians go where people are,” he said.
Published in The New York Times on December 25, 2018. Reprinted with permission.
