Daxue, Major Snow, is the twenty-first solar term, at the sun's longitude of 255 degrees, around the seventh of December. It is a sectional (jie) term. Its name marks the season of heavier snowfall as winter deepens, when snow may blanket the land in the north. In the farming almanac it is a time of rest and preparation, with continued curing and storing of winter foods and the tending of livestock through the cold. Traditional customs emphasise warming, nourishing dishes suited to the depth of the 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 twenty-four-fold division of the tropical year, each term naming a precise fifteen-degree step of the sun.
Daxue, Major Snow, falls at 255 degrees, around 7 December, and is a jie, or sectional, term, whose name marks the point in the traditional agricultural calendar when snowfall is expected to become heavier than at Xiaoxue two weeks before, though as with Xiaoxue the actual snowfall at this date varies widely by region and does not occur reliably everywhere China's calendar is used. Daxue sits at the midpoint of the six terms traditionally assigned to winter, following Lidong and Xiaoxue and preceding Dongzhi, the winter solstice, and in several regional folk traditions it is treated as an appropriate time to begin preparing cured meats and other preserved foods intended to last through the depth of winter.