Kawit

The name Kawit is derived from the Tagalog word kawit kalawit (hook), which is suggestive of its location at the base of a hook-shaped shoreline along Manila Bay extending to the tip of Cavite City.

Legend, however, gives another version on how the town got its name. One day, a Spanish visitor asked a native blacksmith about the name of the village. The latter was busy at the time pounding on the anvil a piece of hot metal that looked like a hook. He hesitated to speak, not understanding what the stranger was asking, but when pressed for an answer, and thinking that he wanted to know what he was doing, he merely said kawit. The Spanish left muttering the word kawit. In the course of the time, the word evolved into cauite, and finally cavite.

Kawit was the most thriving settlement prior to the coming of the Spanish. In fact, the town provided the first anchorage of the Spanish in the province, whence colonization and proselytization of the Christian religion began, spreading to all corners of the province.

For a long time, the place was called by the Spanish "Cavite el Viejo" or Old Cavite to distinguish it from "Cavite la Punta" or "Cavite el Puerto", the commercial port and naval base (now Cavite City) whence came many Spanish marines on shore leave who made frequent visits to Cavite el Viejo, eventually turning it into a red-light district. This seedy reputation of the town was erased when Saint Mary Magdalene was made patroness, under the spiritual supervision of the Jesuits as ordered by Miguel García Serrano, O.S.A. (1618–1629), the fifth Archbishop of Manila.

With the establishment in the wake of the Philippine Revolution, the Philippine Independent Church built a shrine to Saint Michael, the Archangel in the barrio of Binakayan in 1902.

Cavite el Viejo was then a big town, comprising the municipality of Kawit today, Cavite la Punta (now Cavite City), Noveleta (called Tierra Alta by the Spanish), and Imus. Eventually, these three barrios' populations grew and they eventually seceded to become independent municipalities.

Aside from its role as the birthplace of independence, Kawit was also the site of the Battle of Binakayan-Dalahican, one of several Filipino victories during the Revolution.

In the 2020 census, the population of Kawit was 107,535 people,[3] with a density of 4,700 inhabitants per square kilometre or 12,000 inhabitants per square mile.

• Sakegawa, Yamagata., Japan[18]

• Aguinaldo Shrine
• St.Michael the Archangel Parish of Binakayan (Aglipayan Church)
• St. Mary Magdalene Church of Kawit
• Baldomero Aguinaldo Shrine
• Battle of Binakayan-Dalahican
• Kawit revolt, 1896
• Kawit shooting, 2013

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  St. Mary Magdalene Church of Kawit
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  Procession (Karakol, dancing)
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  Aguinaldo tomb
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  Old Town Hall facade
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  Junction

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kawit.

• Official Website of the Provincial Government of Cavite
• Philippine Standard Geographic Code
• Philippine Census Information