I think that the Simpsons creators took some of the ideas from the short story "the lottery". The lottery is a story from a really small village of 300 people. In this town they have the tradition of selling the lottery.. In all places of the world this is something really good because you will have lots of things with this money, but in this small village this is something really bad, because when you win it people from the town will start to throw rocks at you until you die.
In the Simpsons episode they also have a tradition.. This tradition is to kill snakes like with one type of a bat. Everyone in Springfield is practicing they killing snakes skill so that when the time comes they are really well trained. People of Springfield didn't remember the purpose of this tradition and Lisa and Bart where trying to defend all of this snakes. At the end of the episode the mayor of this city tells the truth of way they were killing snakes because nobody else remember it. After that people from Springfield realize that this were something really stupid and stones doing it.
In the Simpsons episode they also have a tradition.. This tradition is to kill snakes like with one type of a bat. Everyone in Springfield is practicing they killing snakes skill so that when the time comes they are really well trained. People of Springfield didn't remember the purpose of this tradition and Lisa and Bart where trying to defend all of this snakes. At the end of the episode the mayor of this city tells the truth of way they were killing snakes because nobody else remember it. After that people from Springfield realize that this were something really stupid and stones doing it.