In every generation, every Jew is obligated to envision himself as if he personally had gone out from Egypt (vid. Exodus 13:8). Hence this excerpt and reminder from our Passover Hagaddah (lit. "tale, saga") called Russia, 1959, from a refusenik who was imprisoned in the Soviet Union:
"...Only that great moment when they set me free
From barbed wire fences and the licensed prisons,
That moment suddenly arrived, unguarded,
With early March's glittering frost, and heaven
Lit up with stars at noon, and on my lips
The blessing not said since childhood suddenly
Recalled as if it were but yesterday -
I make myself believe: to every lover
Of humanity that day will be a holiday,
Arriving without asking to come in."
-- Samuel Halkin, trans. by Edward Honig
In every generation. For in every generation, there are real stories to be told - and if we are true in our purpose, more holidays around the world that arrive without asking to come in.
Since all the world is but a story,
it were well for thee to buy the more enduring story
rather than the story that is less enduring.
— The Judgment of St. Colum Cille (St. Columba of Scotland)