From Sexmoan to Sasmuan: a town takes back its name
How a Spanish spelling turned an old Kapampangan meeting place into a joke, and why the town changed it back.
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Discover Pampanga Editors · October 2026
Photo: Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · via Wikimedia Commons
Long before the Spanish came, Sasmuan was one of the main settlements of Pampanga, with its own system of government. Its name, according to a 17th-century Kapampangan dictionary, comes from sasmo, a meeting place: the town was the pitagmuan, the meeting point of the datus. Another account links it to sasa, a kind of local bamboo.
A spelling problem
The Spanish friars wrote the name as Sexmoan. For centuries this made no difference. Then came the Americans. English-speaking soldiers, including those at Clark, found the name hilarious, and the town became the butt of jokes.
Changing it back
Residents eventually asked for the indigenous spelling. Republic Act No. 6976, dated January 15, 1991, changed the name from Sexmoan to Sasmuan; Wikivoyage dates the change to 1994.
The meeting place today
Sasmuan is now a quiet fishing town, its land mostly fishponds, with one of the oldest churches in the province, Santa Lucia Parish Church, at its centre.
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More in Sasmuan
© Vengolis on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SACommunity
The crab women of Mabuanbuan
In Sasmuan's wetlands, birds and families depend on the same coast. A look at the people who work the Ramsar site.
© Judgefloro on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SACommunity
Kuraldal: Sasmuan's January feast for Saint Lucy
Sasmuan's devotion to Saint Lucy, patron of the blind and of couples hoping for a child, and the January Kuraldal.
Things to do nearby
Adventure
Birdwatching at the Sasmuan wetlands
Watch waterbirds such as egrets and curlews at the Ramsar-listed Sasmuan wetland, by boat and by arrangement with local authorities.
Attractions
Sasmuan Public Market
Riverside market of a fishing town, beside the church and the footbridge to San Pedro.
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SAAttractions
Santa Lucia Parish Church, Sasmuan
Sasmuan's Baroque church of Saint Lucy, an Augustinian foundation of 1590 with a distinctive pineapple-shaped cupola.