The Minor Cold solar term has no other names. Both Minor Cold and Major Cold express the cold temperature of the solar term. The characteristic of the Minor Cold solar term is cold, but it is not yet at its coldest.
During the Minor Cold period, the sun's direct rays are still in the southern hemisphere, and the northern hemisphere is still losing heat. The heat absorbed during the day is still less than the heat released at night, so the temperature in the northern hemisphere continues to drop. After the Winter Solstice, cold air frequently moves southward, causing temperatures to continue to drop, reaching the lowest point during the Minor Cold and Major Cold periods of the year. Folk saying: "During Minor Cold, it is the second or third nine days, the sky is frozen and the ground is icy, and it is so cold that one shivers." This illustrates the degree of cold during the Minor Cold solar term.

During the Minor Cold, eating vegetable rice is a traditional custom in Nanjing, but with the changes of the times, it has gradually faded, and now people can only find some traces in life. When it comes to the Minor Cold, the old people in Nanjing usually cook vegetable rice. The contents of the vegetable rice vary, and they use short-footed yellow kale with salted meat slices, sausage slices, or pickled duck cubes, then chop some ginger granules and glutinous rice together to cook, which is very fragrant and delicious. Among them, short-footed yellow kale, sausages, and pickled duck are all famous specialties of Nanjing, truly representing "Nanjing vegetable rice," even comparable to the Laba porridge. Vegetable rice is called "salted rice" in some places, "salted broken rice" in others, and "seafood rice" in some areas because of the use of seafood. This cooking method was produced under the customs of the working people of "eating from the mountains and rivers" and being frugal and economical.