Answer:
When starting the story in a few lines, many adjectives are used. She uses this to create a good impression by painting pictures of little children while people of the town assembled for a yearly lottery.
This, therefore, clarifies that the entire story is about the holiday summer that had earlier been described. However, the readers are not informed of the worst events that were yet to come. Therefore the symbolism revealed by Shirley shows how ethics had decayed based on the empty rituals.