When rituals lose their meaning people continue to perform them to keep the tradition going. A ritual is a detailed method of procedure faithfully or regularly followed.

In "The Lottery" the ritual that takes place every year in June is very cruel and violent. The only reason that the people of this town continue to perform such a ritual is because it has been going on so long that the people continue to do this every year because it's "a ritual." The people in this small farm town think that their doing a favor by continuing year after year to stone people to death, even though its stupid. The people of this small farm town are stoning people to death every year because they believe its tradition.

In the short story "Mending Wall" the people of this town perform a ritual similar to the one in "The Lottery...