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What's It All About?
When Did It All Happen?
The Four Mitzvot
Colorful CustomsPurim Throughout The World
Illuminated Megillot
Educator's Guide
Masquerade Carnival Purim ShpeilDrinking Half-ShekelWiping Out HamanMaking NoiseShabbat Shekalim and Zachor
There are two shabbatot associated with Purim - one before the month of Adar (this year before Adar Bet, Saturday March 8th), called Shabbat Shekalim, and one before Purim (Saturday, March 22), called Shabbat Zachor.
The Shabbat before Rosh 
Chodesh Adar, a special reading about the donation of the half-shekel (Exodus 30:11-16) is added to the regular parsha reading from the Torah. This is a reminder of the yearly donation Jews gave during the month of Adar, before the new fiscal year in Nissan. There is a custom to give this half-shekel donation on the day before Purim.
On Shabbat Zachor, the portion of the Torah describing the Amalekite attack on the Jews in the desert of Sinai is read. (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) The passage enjoins Jews to remember the evil done by Amalek and to erase his memory. (Amalek was an individual, the grandson of Esau, but eventually became a nation. The commandment to "wipe out Amalek" applies to the entire nation.) Tradition tells us that Haman was a descendent of Agag, the King of Amalek. When King Saul had mercy on him and did not kill him immediately, he impregnated his wife before the prophet Samuel finally did execute him. That infant was Haman's forefather.
Amalek, as a nation, exhibits a fundamental spiritual (call it ideological, if you prefer) incompatibility with the Jewish nation. But rather than try to destroy Israel spiritually, Amalek always attempts physical destruction. It takes no chances, because it knows that the fundamental Jewish nature will eventually reassert itself. In Jewish tradition, Amalek is the embodiment of evil. We, too, can not afford to let it survive, because we know it will intrinsically rear its ugly and fatal head - hence comes the Biblical injunction to wipe out Amalek. Saul lost his kingship because when, in a misplaced feeling of mercy, he didn't completely annhilate the Amalekites in his grasp, a Haman was able to come into the world.
This is where the Purim custom of "wiping out Haman" -- in name and by proxy -- comes from. Before Purim, we read Parshat Zachor and remember Amalek -- and the potentially evil consequences from failing to blot it out.
For more on this parsha, check out Rabbi Shlomo Riskin's piece on Remembering Amalek.
