Leaf peeping is an informal term, commonly used in the United States, for people who travel to view and photograph the fall foliage in areas where foliage changes colors, particularly New England. The origin of the term "leaf peeping" is not well known. A similar custom in Japan is called momijigari.
The term "Leaf Peeper" is used both with appreciation (for those businesses that benefit from the millions that pour into New England each fall) and with disdain (from those who have to use the roads that are popular with leaf peepers). Hobbyists who get together for leaf peeping commonly refer to their gatherings as Leaf Peepshows.
Read more about Leaf Peeping: In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words leaf and/or peeping:
“The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)
“Every day or two I strolled to the village to hear some of the gossip which is incessantly going on there, circulating either from mouth to mouth, or from newspaper to newspaper, and which, taken in homoeopathic doses, was really as refreshing in its way as the rustle of leaves and the peeping of frogs.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)