In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the purpose of the lottery has remained the same. The town gathers to draw lots and determine who dies. Some parts of that ritual have changed over the years, though, including the box from which the lots are drawn and the ceremony itself.
The box that is used to hold the lots people draw is not the original box. It's been used for a long time and people are reluctant to make a new one. Jackson writes:
The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box. There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here.
The box becomes more worn with every passing year, but the town is still unwilling to accept a new one.
The original lots drawn by the villagers were pieces of wood; now the town uses paper slips. They're made by Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves the night before the ceremony. When the town was smaller, it was possible to fit wooden chips into the box. With more than 300 people now living in the town, wood doesn't work. It won't fit. Paper is small enough that all the lots fit in the box.
The ceremony is also a shadow of what it once was. Many of the residents are unclear on what used to happen or disagree on the details. Jackson says:
There was the proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this part of the ritual had been allowed to lapse. There had been, also, a ritual salute, which the official of the lottery had had to use in addressing each person who came up to draw from the box, but this also had changed with time, until now it was felt necessary only for the official to speak to each person approaching.
Even though the village will accept some changes to the lottery, there's no discussion of doing away with it altogether. They aren't even sure how to conduct it the way it was done originally—but they still gather to perform the bizarre ritual every year.
Another interesting fact about the annual tradition is that the villagers aren't sure why it began in the first place. No one left has any knowledge of why the lottery exists at all. In addition, Jackson says that "so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded." That doesn't stop them from gathering each year, drawing their lots, and stoning the loser to death.
It's a grim scenario and there seems to be no end in sight. As Jackson writes near the end of the story, "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones."
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