I don’t recall ‘young virgins’ being sacrificed in either movie.
You might enjoy Professor Ronald Hutton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT9ijbQiB2w
why is there a photo of every girl chosen QUEEN OF THE MAY, or whatever, every year, but NOT this year's?
WHY ARE ALL OF THE GIRLS STILL ALIVE, BUT THIS YEAR'S GIRL "CLAIMED TO BE MISSING"?
The entire film is based on ancient pagan traditions AND the luring of a STRANGER to the island, because the apple crop had failed AND the fishing season had gone badly the previous year to......hence the "sacrifice"!
All of this is 100% different from THE LOTTERY, which is a yearly occurrence AND always ends with a MURDER; regardless of age!
And THE WICKERMAN is a MAY DAY FESTIVAL; remember the Maypole dance and the MORRIS DANCERS?
None of that is in THE LOTTERY!
For a book and later a T.V. series starring Bette Davis ( both good, but the book is better! ) that is more comparable to THE WICKERMAN, though American written, by Thomas Tryone ( love all of his books! ), and set in Ct., HARVEST HOME hits that nail on the head...with corn dollies, etc., very old holdovers from the pagan British Isles of long ago.
Granted, I haven't read, nor seen the film series of HARVEST HOME since they came out...ditto THE LOTTERY, so I may be missing some details here and there, but I've also tried to keep it brief and not overload with details. in the event that some might want to read or see these books and/or films/programs.
Many grateful thanks for the link! I think that I have watched some of his other videos in the past, he looks and sounds very familiar to me. :-)
Aha...looked at his home page and yes, I have seen several of his videos in the past, and now I’ll watch the one you sent. :-)