Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Does your family or community have any traditions that they celebrate every year? Traditions are usually handed down from generation to generation and are a time when a family or community have an opportunity to make special memories. Most often these memories are positive and cause people to bond. Sometimes the news about the celebration is spread around the whole country such as Groundhog Day. Unfortunately in the short story “The Lottery” the tradition they celebrate ends tragically year after year. People have the right to change a bad thing despite their past generations. Some traditions should be continued to be celebrated, while other traditions should be ended. Traditions have different origins. The tradition of Groundhog Day which is celebrated in Pennsylvania on February 2nd each year began in 1887. The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (Groundhog Day 1). During the ceremony which begins before sunrise, the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil Sowerby appears with his wife and daughter from their home on Gobbler’s Knob. A group called the Inner Circle takes care of Phil year-round and plans …show more content…
Every year on the morning of July twenty-seventh, around ten o’clock, about three hundred people gather in the town square to participate in the lottery. The children gathered first, then the men, and then the women. Finally Mr. Summers, the citizen that makes sure the lottery is conducted according to the rules, appears with the black box. The black box contains slips of paper that have every person’s name on it. The citizens begin to pull a slip. The person who draws the slip with a black dot on it, will be stoned to death by the other citizens. After the person is stoned to death, everyone returns to their homes as nothing has happened. The day begins with lots of excitement, but ends very dismally (Jackson