Samhain became a melting pot of a few different traditions with the souls of the dead. It was there new Year, mostly, but you have to realise that some of the african and medditeraenean (my spelling is tired, sorry), traditions sneaked in. So he/she is actually not wrong.
Oh I know all about Samhain and Wicca.I read quite a lot and long ago, even had to translate, from the original Latin, Julius Caesar's take on it LOL
Don't worry about spelling ... mine isn't all that good ( dyslexia ) and besides,I can tell what you mean. :-)
It's really only in the last 30 years or so, that Halloween has become such an overboard celebration in the USA. Halloween trees ? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeesh ! And a lot of peculiar stuff has been incorporated into it.
Were you Gardnerian, Fairyfey, Dianic, or just the local hodge-podge of California Wicca ?