Reaping Ceremony

The reaping is the annual lottery in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 are chosen from each district to compete in the Hunger Games, a punishment for the Dark Days rebellion. In the first novel, Katniss volunteers when her sister Primrose is chosen. In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Lucy Gray Baird of District 12 drops a snake down the dress of the mayor's daughter and sings to the crowd during the televised reaping ceremony.