A ritual is something done out of habit or for tradition. Many times the reason is forgotten. When something is done as a ritual, and the meaning is lost, it no longer has grounding in reality and only causes harm.

In the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, a ritual is performed. The ritual in every one doing a lottery. Randomly the people choose slips of paper, and whoever has the dotted paper one in their family is stoned to death. That specific person is chosen randomly in the same fashion. Originally it may have been to appease a god of harvest, "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon"(pg. 107). As the lottery takes place on June 27th(my Birthday), so it would be right before harvest takes place. Yet the citizens seem to have forgotten almost every thing that originally went with the ritual. .".. the villagers...