The narrator explains to the reader that the old box used for the lottery has become really dilapidated and worn, with chipping paint and stains and faded areas. Mr. Summers, the man in town who runs the lottery each year, has tried to convince the townsfolk to make a new box, "but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box." The meaning of the word tradition in this context seems to be the status quo, or the way things are already done. People seem to want to continue to do things the way they have been doing them because that is the way they have been done before. They seem to want to avoid thinking about what might be replaced, as this could open up a whole can of worms, so to speak: just the box? Or the box and how families draw? Or the box and the lottery in general? Where does the replacement stop once it begins? Rather than address these questions, the villagers would rather "not upset" any even seemingly minor part of their lives.
In the fifth paragraph of Jackson's "The Lottery," the word "tradition" appears as follows: "no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box." In the story, the black box holds the slips of paper representing each member of the village, with one slip bearing the infamous black spot that signifies the stoning of that person. The black box is old and splintered, but it is the original box that was used when the villagers first began the practice of the lottery. Because the villagers are quite tied to their traditional practices, they do not want to replace the box with a newer one. The villagers do not want to "upset" any aspect of their ongoing practice, and for them, the black box is one of the iconic elements of this practice. "Tradition" in the context of the story refers to the act of blindly following a long-held practice, even if—like the black box—time prompts a revision of the practice.
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