Xiaoxue, Minor Snow, is the twentieth solar term, at the sun's longitude of 240 degrees, around the twenty-second of November. It is a principal (zhongqi) term. Its name signals the first light snows in the north as the cold sets in, though the snowfall is still slight. In the farming almanac it is a time of storing and preserving, the making of pickled and cured foods for winter, the salting of vegetables and meats, as fresh produce grows scarce. The land settles into its dormant season. Being a solar marker, it falls near the same Gregorian date each year. These are the observances of the East Asian agricultural tradition, resting on the division of the tropical year into twenty-four solar terms of fifteen degrees each along the ecliptic.
Xiaoxue, Minor Snow, falls at 240 degrees, around 22 November, and is a qi, or major, term, whose name signals the traditional expectation of the year's first light snowfall across northern China, distinguished from the heavier snow expected at Daxue roughly two weeks later. As with several other terms named for expected precipitation, the actual likelihood of snow at Xiaoxue varies considerably by region and by year, and the name records a traditional agricultural expectation calibrated to the North China Plain rather than a guaranteed meteorological event. Traditional practice in some regions treats this period as the point to begin preparing preserved and pickled vegetables for the winter months ahead.